Memories of Friends: A Mystery Dungeon Story
by Enigma149
Summary: Adam became a pokemon five years ago. Yet when he returned to being human, he passed off the experience for a dream. But when a blurry image challenges that belief, Adam, with a gym-leader's sister as a friend, will set out on a journey to get answers.
1. Chapter One: Meteor

Author's Notes – This story is inspired by the Ginji's Rescue Team manga, though all the characters are original. This story does, however, follow the plotline of the original Pokémon Mystery Dungeon _games_ (Red and Blue Rescue Team), with the following exceptions: The main character decided not to remain a pokémon, and Gengar also turned itself back into a human after sacrificing its life to save a young Krabby.

I do not own pokémon.

\\\Chapter One: Meteor/

_Careful…careful…_Adam moved his fingers ever so slightly. As an expert woodcarver, he knew the slightest mistake was irreversible, and something not tolerated when you spend over a year on the same carving. No, Adam was aiming toward perfection. Indeed, it was highly likely he would achieve that perfection today: all he had left to finish was one-eighth inch of border around his carving, and it would be complete. Brushing away the dust caused by his knife (he preferred to carve with a knife), Adam gazed over his masterpiece.

The center of the carving featured a giant Rayquaza. Above this Rayquaza shone a bright yellow-red circle. Battling the Rayquaza were two pokémon, a Cyndaquil and a Treecko. The Cyndaquil could be seen in multiple smaller images surrounding the main image, usually seen battling some legendary pokémon such as Zapdos and Groudon. Finally, the border of the image was a typical border: spirals on the corner, but with straight lines along the edges. The only exception to this rule was a small emblem in the uppermost center of the carving, which appeared to be an egg with wings. Smiling to himself, Adam flipped it over, attached two hooks, and hung the twelve-by-eight foot carving above his bed.

As a young boy of fifteen years of age, Adam should be on his pokémon journey. Yet on the eve of his ninth birthday (one year before he was to become a trainer), he had an experience he was sure no one else ever gained: he became a pokémon. To be specific, he became the Cyndaquil in the wood carving. Yet despite the supposed two years of life as a pokémon, he returned to being a human the very day in which he left. Because of this, he was sure he had dreamed the entire adventure. His life as a pokémon did, however, have one implication: he did not want to train the creatures to fight.

Instead, he turned to art. Drawing, painting, and carving out his adventure to a detail level that would've put Da Vinci to shame. He became the greatest artist on all of the Sevii Islands, so when it came time to expand the Kanto league to ten gyms, the Chrono Island Gym called him in for the job. With the money he made from decorating the gym (this time in a style based on his delusional ascension of Sky Tower), he had enough money to last him until he moved out (his parents refused to pay for anything other than food and his room).

However, Adam found himself without any friends. Everyone his age left to go on their journeys when they were ten (except for David, but he left when he was twelve), and there were no other children left on Quest Island. Granted, many trainers often traveled through the town to reach Trainer Tower, but none he knew (most children from Sevii started their journey in Hoenn, and they had an identical facility called Trainer Hill). Though he was dismayed by his lack of companionship, he knew that it was too late to leave on his journey anyway.

Just then, he heard a knock at his front door. His parents were out for the day (his mom worked in Trainer Tower and his father manned the Seagallop High Speed No. 8), so he went quietly put down his tools and answered the door. Standing in the doorway was Juliet Selphy, the Chrono Island Gym Leader (daughter of the late Eleanor Selphy, who owned a mansion north of the main Chrono Island town). Adam had not seen Juliet since he finished her gym, and so was appropriately stunned to have a gym leader standing in his doorway.

"Excuse me," Juliet said, "but I have been called to a gym-leader's conference at Trainer Tower, and I…um…you see…gosh, I don't know how to put this…I don't have a single pokémon that can surf on water..and…well–"

"It's alright, Juliet," Adam interrupted, "if you want to know how to get to Trainer Tower without surfing, just follow me.

"Thanks – wait! Why did you call me Juliet?"

"Well that's your name, isn't it? Aren't you Juliet Selphy?"

"No! Juliet's my older sister! I'm Stephanie, Stephanie Selphy. Pleasure to meet you."

"Right…sorry…well, here, follow me. I hope you're not afraid of getting wet." Adam walked Stephanie past the edge of town (a whopping quarter-mile away!), and north along the Trainer Tower root until they reached the water. Adam then turned right and walked until they ran into some cliffs. He boosted Stephanie up and then climbed up himself onto a large rock, and proceeded to show Stephanie a small path that traveled along the side of the cliff.

"Wait a minute – this path doesn't go all the way! We'll still need to surf!"

"Relax, and don't worry," Adam said as he jumped onto a large rock sticking out of the water, "All we have to do is walk across the rocks, and we'll be at Trainer Tower within the hour." With that said, Adam began to jump across the rocks with great expertise (for he had traveled the same route a great number of times). Stephanie fell into the water once, but got the hang of it after five minutes, and soon traveled far ahead of Adam. They reached Trainer Tower just as the clock struck two.

Turning to Adam, Stephanie said, "Thanks! Say, I never got your name."

"My name's Adam, and don't worry – I do this all the time," Adam said as he turned to leave. However, he did not get more than five feet before something caught his eye. All the trainers, Stephanie included, had gathered around a small television set in the corner of the tower. Curious, Adam walked over toward the television and asked someone what was so important. Rather than respond, the trainer simply hushed him and pointed at the screen. It appeared as though a battle was underway, or, more specifically, had just ended. Several trainers around him were turning to leave as the television cut to a newsroom.

"Much thanks to Jublife TV for allowing us to hijack their broadcast of the first challenger to face the new Sinnoh champion," a woman on the television said, "We now return to our regularly-scheduled news broadcast. Authorities in the Orre region announced yesterday evening that the three-year-old Citadark explosion northwest of the Orre region was not, as had previously been announced, an above-ground atomic bomb test. The atomic bomb excuse was meant to cover-up a –" Someone changed the channel to a commercial for pokéblocks.

"Hey!" Adam yelled, causing numerous stares.

"Sorry! Sorry! The trainer changed it back.

"– had the meteor impacted the ocean, it would have likely caused a tsunami that took out not only the Orre coastline, but caused global sea-levels to rise seven feet. Nevertheless, the meteor's explosion caused catastrophic damage to a satellite orbiting above the region at the time. This same satellite had the images that proved the existence of the meteor, based on one second of corrupted footage that had previously been decoded by scientists at the Mossdeep Space Center. For reasons yet unknown, the Hoenn Government has classified the final three seconds of footage, likely because the meteor destroyed portions of the satellite while leaving the camera intact, meaning the components of the satellite would be revealed. In other news, an earthquake in Sootopolis City has caused the Cave of Origin entrance to collapse. Radar has revealed only the innermost chamber remains…"

_A meteor…_thought Adam. _That's odd…three years ago…I would be what, eleven? But the Citadark Explosion lead to threats of war by all the other regions against the Hoenn! Satellite parts cannot possibly be that important, can they?_ Adam wasn't so sure. _The only other explanation is that there was something else caught on video._

Adam gave up on trying to determine what could possibly be so important and instead went to watch Stephanie's battles. Normally, non-trainers were not allowed in Trainer Tower, but Adam had grown up on Quest Island, so he earned a high level of respect amongst the workers. Stephanie's lack of a water type did not wear her down: she completed the tower in just under ten minutes, the third-ever fastest completion. As she was presented her prize (a TM), Adam suddenly got an idea.

"Hey Stephanie," he said, "I need your help with something. You see, I am not a trainer, but I really want to visit Mossdeep…"

\\\End of Chapter One/

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Two – Piracy


	2. Chapter Two: Piracy

Author's Notes – Since I didn't put this at the last chapter, I will put it here. I don't own pokémon – Nintendo does. Also, there is a slight error in this story's title: It should read "Memories of Friends (a Mystery Dungeon Story). I don't know whether the parentheses were deleted or I simply neglected to type them, but I just wanted to set the record straight. Anyway, here's chapter two.

\\\Chapter Two: Piracy///

Stephanie and Adam sat in silence around the television in Adam's living room. Adam was hoping there would be more news about the meteor, as Stephanie had been busy registering while the initial broadcast took place. Despite having no luck with the Sevii channels, JNWS thankfully decided to make it their main story of the day.

"We now bring you an update from our continuing coverage of the Citadark Meteor. Professor Albert Redwood of the Mossdeep Institute of Engineering has succeeded in enhancing a single unclassified image," the news anchor said. An image appeared onscreen. Adam and Stephanie (as well as hundreds of other viewers across the globe) saw what they thought might have been a meteor being split in half by what they thought looked like a beam of energy. The entire picture was colored red and yellow, with the exception of a small green speck that appeared in the lower left-hand corner."

The television changed from the meteor to a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, whom Adam and Stephanie assumed (correctly) was Redwood. "This image," Redwood began, "is the first of what we hope to be many images of the Citadark Meteor in color."

An off-screen interviewer cut in, "You say this image is in full color, but why are the colors so red?"

"That," Redwood responded, "is actually our own fault. Hoenn satellite technology is a relatively expensive field. It was far cheaper for images to be transferred in four parts – brightness, red, green, and blue were all separate. Unfortunately, the satellite was destroyed before the blue portion of the image could be sent, so the information is likely lost forever."

"I see. Can you tell us more about why this image is so significant?"

"With pleasure. You see, it shows us exactly how the meteor was destroyed. This beam of energy shooting up the middle is a rare form of energy transfer called 'Spontaneous Proton Radiation', or SPR. Previously, this has only been observed within our labs."

"So what exactly is this 'Spontaneous Proton Radiation'?"

"Glad you asked. As some of you may know, electrons are negatively charged particles within an atom. Likewise, lightning is simply electrons rapidly jumping from an area of negative charge to positive charge. SPR, on the other hand, is made of protons, positively charged particles, jumping from positively charged areas to negatively charged areas. Based on data gathered by the satellite, the meteor was extremely negatively charged, making it a major target for SPR."

Stephanie had seen enough, and quickly turned off the television. Turning to Adam, she said in a tone that was both curious and threatening, "Is _this_ why you want me to take you to Mossdeep? Some stupid _meteor? _Do you have any idea how expensive a boat ticket is these days? Why –"

"Quiet and let me respond!" Adam yelled.

"Sorry, but it's just that…well…alright. You have one minute. Go."

"First of all," Adam began, "it would be relatively easy to get to Mossdeep: my dad owns a Seagallop ferry. Secondly, if you want to know why this meteor is so important to me, you should follow me." Adam began to move upstairs. When Stephanie protested, he simply responded, "I also happen to know the location of an extremely rare and powerful, not to mention _legendary_ pokémon, so it would be in your best interest as a trainer to follow me."

Stephanie followed Adam into his room. Once again, she began asking a multitude of questions, often not finishing them. Adam waved his hand to silence her and merely pointed at the carving above his been. Stephanie, for the first time since Adam met her, was silenced.

"You see," Adam began, "I happen to know all this because, three years ago, I was there. That green speck in the corner of the image? Yes, that was Rayquaza, the titan of the sky."

Stephanie was not amused, sounding extremely irritated when she said, "Impossible. You seem to have forgotten one thing – Rayquaza lives atop the Sky Pillar, or so every ancient ruin and archaeologist will tell you. The Sky Pillar is in Hoenn; therefore the meteor must have been in Hoenn. Aside from the obvious fact that the _Citadark_ Explosion would have happened over, or at the very least, near Orre, most people notice when a giant meteor is about to fall on their county!"

Adam once again silenced her with a wave of his hand, as if speaking to a crowd. "Your theory that I am wrong has one flaw. You see, the ancient Hoenn word for 'pillar' was mistranslated – it should be the Sky _Tower._ Furthermore, I have in fact climbed atop the sky tower. The picture you see on my wall is exactly what I saw: Rayquaza, battling two other pokémon, with a meteor above their heads. I also saw the meteor destroyed, and guess what!" Adam continued, without giving Stephanie a chance to guess, "It wasn't some kind of Spontaneous Proton Whatever – It was an attack. To be more specific, it was a _Hyper Beam."_

"And how can you prove that you're not lying?" Stephanie inquired.

"I admit I cannot. At first, I questioned whether this meteor was just me chasing after some lost dream. After seeing the image downstairs, I have come to believe that is not the case, so I'll make a deal with you – if we go to Mossdeep, and I'm wrong, I'll pay for everything it has cost you and also register you in the Hoenn League. On the other hand, if I'm right, you have to follow me. You'll still get your chance to fight Rayquaza, so it's a win-win situation."

Stephanie could think of a rebuttal, but decided not to use it. Instead, she completely changed her tone, going from a critical one to a more agreeable one. "And you said you can get us all the way to Vermillion cheaply? Alright – I'll go. But if you're wrong –"

Adam was out of his house and dashing toward the Seagallop ferry station before Stephanie could finish. He felt guilty for lying to her, and wanted to keep it as hidden as possible. He had not lied about seeing Rayquaza – that much was true. What he had lied about was how they were going to get there.

Stephanie caught up with Adam just as he reached the doors of the Seagallop port. She watched as Adam slid what appeared to be an identification card through a slot next to the door, waited three seconds, and then followed him through. Immediately, she spotted a problem. There was a Seagallop in the port (number eight), but there was no one to steer it – the entire building appeared to be closed. "Adam," she began, "I don't think were supposed to be in here."

"Just relax," Adam began. "Like I said before, this is my father's ship, and he lets me steer it from time to time. I'll get us to Vermillion within the day."

Stephanie was once again unsure of whether following Adam's directions was wise. But Adam did say it was his father's ship, and since most jobs stayed within the family on the Sevii, it would only be natural that Adam knew how to drive it. Reluctantly, she climbed aboard.

As promised, Adam had almost no trouble emerging from the port, almost meaning he forgot to start the ship in reverse. After a few minutes, however, they were speeding away from Quest Island in traditional Seagallop style. Better yet, Stephanie did not even notice Adam as he flipped a toggle switch, labeled "Global Positioning System" into the off position three minutes into the trip. Nor did she notice him sending the ferry into speeds that approached (and exceeded) the legal water speed limit five minutes into the trip.

She did, however, notice the message that came over the radio six minutes into the trip: "Attention Seagallop Ferry Eight! This is the Sevii Police! You are stealing a government vehicle. You must return to port imead –"

Adam had a look of frustration on his face as he shut the radio off. So did Stephanie, but that was hidden beneath the look of anger on hers. "I thought you said this ship was your father's!" she screamed.

"It is! Only…not technically."

"What do you mean 'not technically'?"

"All twelve Seagallop ferries are operated privately, usually in part of a family business. The revenue generated by the tickets goes to the families, et cetera. However, the ships themselves are…owned by the Sevii government."

"You mean to tell me that we have just _stolen_ a government vehicle? Do you have any idea what happens to people who steal government vehicles? That's a felony! They send you to _jail_ for this sort of thing!"

"Will you please just _shut up?"_ Adam exclaimed. "Yes, we stole a government boat. Yes, we will go to jail…_if we get caught._ Which we _won't_ – I destroyed the GPS. They can't track us, and we're already passing Floe Island. We'll be in Hoenn within three hours. They'd never think to look outside of the Islands, and it's not like we're going to need the boat for anything else. With luck, they won't ever find it. When it does come time to return home, all we have to do is make ourselves have a tattered appearance. It'll be more than enough to pass off for two innocent children who were the unfortunate victims of a kidnapping. If we really want to make it authentic, we could even charge a ransom for ourselves."

Stephanie had nothing to say. Within one day she had gone from a Trainer Tower hopeful to a criminal about to jump national boundaries. She thought for sure Adam was overestimating his ability to evade the police. Nevertheless, it was also true that if she left now, she would likely be thrown in jail anyway. _Not to mention miss out on Rayquaza._ She thought silently to herself.

Adam, on the other hand, had other thoughts on his mind. He was not worried about getting arrested – the police had no chance of catching a Seagallop ferry with no GPS. Nor was he worried about making it to Mossdeep – the ship, thankfully, came with maps. They showed the distance to Mossdeep was exactly 52 miles. Basic math his father had taught him meant they needed 208 gallons of fuel to reach Mossdeep, and they had slightly over 220 in the tank. The only thing he was worried about was the time of year: it was the middle of hurricane season. Even so, it seemed as though they had gotten lucky – no hurricanes were projected to be in the area they would be sailing through for two days.

Fortunately, Adam was correct about the police: they only spotted one patrol boat, around Knot Island, which they easily evaded by traveling around Mt. Ember. Unfortunately, he was wrong about everything else.

\\\End of Chapter Two///

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Three – Tempest


	3. Chapter Three: Tempest

Author's Notes – Thanks to ScytheRider's tip on how to fix the title.

\\\Chapter Three: Tempest///

That night, Adam dreamed. Normally, this would be nothing out of the ordinary, for every single human on earth dreams every single night. In fact, the only two things abnormal about this dream were both its clarity and also its contents.

Adam floated alone, a life without a body. He was staring off into a random splattering of colors, his non-existent body casting a perfectly-circular shadow on what could have been either the ground or a cloud. Despite the extreme isolation, he was aware of someone approaching. Though he did not move, the scene around him changed to show a figure in the distance. As the dream faded, the figure began to glance upwards into Adam's face. Just before he would gaze into the figure's eyes, Adam awoke to the sound of thunder and a siren in the distance.

Immediately, Adam bolted for the door, glad he left it unlocked. Racing down the hall, Adam caught sight of a twenty foot wave outside a porthole, but paid it no notice. Stephanie rounded a corner at the same time, and the two collided, each knocking the other to the floor. Had it not been for the blare of the siren, Stephanie would have been shouting. Instead, she followed Adam, but fell down again and lost her way after a giant wave rocked the boat. Five minutes later, she stumbled through the door and lay at Adam's feet, barely with enough energy to climb into the captain's chair.

Adam was far to busy to notice Stephanie's disoriented state and called her over, saying, "Stephanie, come tell me if I'm reading this correctly."

Stephanie had no idea how the Seagallop ferries even worked, much less how to monitor one. Nevertheless, the growing torrent outside left her with very few choices. Surprisingly, the meter Adam was having her check was impossible to misinterpret, for it read this:

**Fuel Remaining: 0.000 kL**

"Adam, I think we're out of fuel!"

Adam did not respond, but asked Stephanie to check another reading, one that made Stephanie's eyes change from confusion to fear:

**Estimated Wave Height: 7.212 m**

"Adam, I don't know very much about the sea, but based on everything I do know, we're out of fuel…in the middle of a hurricane!"

Once again, Adam did not respond.

"Adam, if you don't get this ship working, neither of us will emerge alive!"

"I know! I know! It's just…there's no possible way we could've run out of fuel this quickly! I did the math three times over, and once more just now – we had more than enough fuel when we left, even running full blast! I just –" the realization hit Adam like a ton of bricks (or was that the waves outside?)

"What is it?" Stephanie inquired, stress in her voice.

"We're on a boat," Adam replied.

"No, really? What was your first clue?"

"You don't understand – I calculated the amount of fuel we would need to reach Mossdeep _on land._ But out here, _at sea, _the fuel needed is different. A mile just isn't the same on land and sea," Adam said with dismay.

"What?"

"We're so close! We can't be far from Mossdeep at all – the difference is miniscule! But…with no fuel…and in this storm…" Adam was at a loss for words.

"Listen to me!" Stephanie yelled, grabbing Adam's shoulder and yanking him several feet. "You have turned me into a criminal, and now you're going to have me die! I have some news – I don't plan to die out here in some storm, cowering inside a control room!"

With that, Stephanie ran out onto the main deck, grasping onto the rail with both arms. Adam burst out the door after her, screaming against the howl of the storm, but Stephanie paid him no notice. Instead, her attention was drawn to a blinking blue light in the distance, about thirty miles away. Whatever it was, she did not know, but this light gave her a destination. Looking up, she began to formulate a plan.

"Adam," she said, her voice only slightly audible over the crashing waves, "I think I have an idea. How exactly does the Seagallop's fuel work?"

"Gasoline. Same as everything else. The gas creates a fire, which rotates a turbine, generating electricity and thus powering the engines.

"And would it be possible to supply electricity directly to the engines?"

"Hypothetically, but I don't –" Adam cut himself off as he followed Stephanie's gaze, upward, directly above the bridge. A lone flagpole hung off the metal wall of the ship, its flag long since torn by the winds. The pole, however, remained, and when the pole was struck by a bolt of lightning (igniting a small fire that was quickly doused by the rain), Adam understood Stephanie's plan.

"You want to use the flagpole as a lightning rod? I hate to make our situation seem even grimmer than it is, but all the wire on this ship is embedded within three inch thick steel walls! You'd need to dismantle the ship piece by piece to get enough wire to run from that pole to the generator. Plus, we wouldn't get very far before the direct use of energy blew the engine!"

"We don't need to get very far – look out there!"

Adam looked, but saw nothing. Stephanie, however, was persistent, and Adam eventually gave in and looked again. He only saw it for a second, between the crests of two waves, but he saw it nonetheless. Far away, a blinking blue light atop an invisible tower could be seen lighting up the clouds…the Mossdeep City Aviation Light.

"That doesn't matter – we still can't power the ship…unless."

Adam bolted down the deck, the rain like bullets on his skin. Within two minutes, he found the door into the generator room's second floor, and yanked it aside. Stephanie hurried after him.

"You're a trainer, Stephanie, right"

"Yeah…"

"Do you have any electric pokémon?"

"Of course, but –"

"Release your strongest!"

Stephanie was at last able to comprehend Adam's plan. Her strongest electric pokémon was a Raichu she had trained for six years, but she knew the pokémon she was releasing now would be stronger. One throw of a pokéball later, an Electivire stood between the two trainers, not noticing the look of exhaustion on either of the children's faces.

"Electivire, you need to do exactly as I tell you, or none of us will ever emerge alive! Use any electricity you have and attack that generator!"

Adam, with a look of bewilderment on his face, understood Stephanie's intention. That did not mean that the first lightning to strike Electivire had no affect on him, and it took every ounce of resistance he had to prevent himself from tackling Stephanie to the ground for abusing her pokémon. As Electivire's Motor Drive pumped energy from the storm directly into the generator, it soon became apparent the plan was working – slowly, the lights in the ship were beginning to come on.

"Stephanie, you're a genius! Motor Drive will reduce the power of the lightning to nothing, yet boosting your Electivire's speed! Since pokémon attacks only have three-quarters the power of natural lightning, we may just make it out of the storm before our engine –"

Without so much as a warning, the Seagallop charged off into the storm, tearing through waves and sending a herd of Gyarados careening away. It took less than half an hour before they were clear of the storm, for they were on the very edge.

A new problem, however, soon presented itself. At the worst possible moment, the engine exploded, and Adam quickly realized hitting the rocks around Mossdeep was unavoidable. Stephanie must have noticed it too, for she was already at the controls. Though breaking the ship was impossible, Stephanie had managed to change direction, aiming the Seagallop at what would become its final destination…Shoal Island.

Seagallop High Speed Eight ran aground with enough force to turn both Adam and Stephanie into lifeless putty, had they not bailed out of the ship at the last second. Breathless and exhausted, both swam to shore. Adam immediately lay down on the sand, apparently unaware of the tides.

Stephanie, on the other hand, ran straight at him, and upon reaching her destination, pulled him by the shirt, screaming. It took five minutes for Adam to calm her down to the extent that he could decipher her words, but the meaning had become clear long before.

"You say you're not a trainer, yet you can get me onto an island, _on foot, _without breaking a sweat! Forgetting the difference between land and nautical miles means you're obviously not a sailor, yet you know exactly how to steer a ship hundreds of miles and only miss your destination because you ran out of fuel, and also happen to know how much power exists in a pokémon's attacks, something even the greatest minds in the Kanto haven't figured out! So tell me…who are you, and how have you learned so much?"

Adam knew he had lost the battle, and that his secret-keeping was over. Regretfully, Adam began to tell his tale…

* * *

Over two hundred miles northeast, in the Pyrite Coliseum, two figures stood off in the championship battle. The defending champion had played the crowd expertly, not that it mattered. Even with the backing of the crowd, he still had to defeat the shadowy opponent that was staring him down. Hidden beneath the hood of his coat, the challenger threw his last pokéball, only one pokémon to face his opponent's two.

The champion, with the crowd duplicating him, was in hysterics. All that remained to defeat was a Magmar…and one with a useless item at that. Hanging around the Magmar's neck was a Miracle Seed, which everyone in the building knew could only be used to power up a grass-type. Perfect fodder for his combination team, which included both trick _and_ a grass pokémon.

"That's all you've got? This'll be over faster than I thought! Furret! Use trick! Steel his seed and give it to Tangrowth!" he said. He then faced the challenger and uttered in disgust, "I don't know how you got this far – you don't use unevolved pokémon in a coliseum, and you certainly don't give them useless items. How could you forget such basic rules of battling?"

The champion waited until the last possible moment to respond. Finally, when the Furret was only three feet from his Magmar, he gave out the strangest order anyone had ever heard. In a voice that rang throughout the coliseum, he said, "Magmar! Eat the seed."

Even with the entire crowd laughing, Magmar complied. Furret still charged, apparently not distracted by his opponent's alleged stupidity.

"Magmar! Dodge!"

Furret, inches away from Magmar, gave one last burst of speed…and flew through space, crashing into the ground. Less than half a second later, Magmar had blasted it with a Flamethrower, repeating his barrage with speeds that would challenge any Ninjask's. Within two seconds, the Furret was knocked out and Magmar was at work incinerating the Tangrowth, who went down half a minute later.

The figure stared at his dazed opponent. "My friend," he said, "I think you'll find the rules have changed." He reached inside his coat and took out a small, pale-blue sphere. There was a cylinder of blue light that shone around the man, followed by a smaller yellow cylinder around his Magmar. One blinding flash of light later, they were both gone.

\\\End of Chapter Three///

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Four – Preparing for Departure


	4. Chapter Four: Proof

Author's Notes – I decided to expand chapter four (Preparing for Departure), thus making two chapters: Proof (this chapter), and Fugitives (chapter five). Also, I will be updating this story less frequently, likely only once per week. Sorry.

\\\Chapter Four: Proof///

"Don't leave!" Adam yelled.

"Why not?" Stephanie yelled back, already at the edge of Shoal Island.

"Because –"

"Because _why?_ Why should I listen to you – you're insane! I have had my entire life destroyed by you! I stole a ship – a Seagallop! I'm an illegal alien inside a country hundreds of miles from my own! All so you could chase after some delusion!"

"It wasn't a delusion!"

"How? How is it possible? You say you became a Cyndaquil, so tell me. How can one have such a change, eh? Like I said, it's _impossible!"_ Stephanie screamed as she waded into the ocean surrounding Shoal. She was not an experienced swimmer, though the distance from Shoal to Mossdeep was less than one-fifth that from Quest Island to Trainer Tower, so she was more than likely to reach the city alive.

"I suffered the curse of the Ninetales," Adam lied.

Stephanie stopped wading and turned around. "Alright," she said, "you got me there. I suppose, if the legends are true…well, then yes, it is possible. But it's highly unlikely every legend is true. Besides, no credible sources claim there's a curse!"

"Sure they do. Just check your pokédex."

"Why would I –"

"I tell you what. If the pokédex has no information of a curse in it, then you win, and I'll go. You'll never here from me again, except for a large check you'll receive in the mail fully paying for all your debts," Adam offered. "On the other hand, if _I_ am correct and there _is_ a mention of the curse, then you have to join me, right up to Rayquaza. After that, you can go your own way. I don't care."

Stephanie considered this. On the one hand, she lost absolutely nothing if she was right, even if Adam was lying about the money. On the other hand, if she was wrong, she would get a chance to battle Rayquaza, supposing Adam was right about more than just the curse. Either way, she had very little to loose, so she accepted the challenge, and flipped out her pokédex.

"Ninetales, the fox pokémon," it said. "When a Ninetales evolves, its six tails merge into one, and then split again into nine."

"See? _See?" _Stephanie teased. "I told you_–"_

"Ninetales are often revered for their fur, which is used in coats," the pokédex continued. "This is both illegal and extremely dangerous, due to the 'Ninetales curse,' which affects anyone who touches one of its tails. The effects of the curse are currently unknown."

Stephanie was silenced, and it took her several seconds to think up a rebuttal. "This proves nothing!" she finally said. "Just because there may be a curse doesn't mean you _did_ become a pokémon."

"Very well," Adam replied. "I suppose you are right. We did have a deal, but I'm willing to extend that. How about this: we go to Mossdeep, straight into the Space Center. If they're airing new footage on television that goes against my predictions, you can once again go, and I'll once again cover your debts. However, if I'm right, you once again have to come with me, no exceptions. Agreed?"

"That depends…what do you predict?"

"Rayquaza will be on the footage, battling two other pokémon. The finishing blow to Rayquaza will be an Absorb, yes, _Absorb, _used by a Treecko, preceded by a Flamethrower used by Cyndaquil. Rayquaza will appear to recover, but will then reconsider, and destroy the meteor."

Stephanie readily accepted. _If any pokémon could defeat Rayquaza, it would have to be fully evolved and use some all-powerful move like Hyper Beam._

Twenty minutes later, they were walking through the doors of the Mossdeep Space Center. Immediately, Stephanie's smug vanished. All the trainers were gathered around the lone television in the building (all other screens were monitoring satellites).

"…shocking new revelations about the Citadark Meteor. Less than twelve hours after the so-called SPR theory was disproved in a multitude of laboratory-based experiments, new footage reveals the meteor actually being destroyed, by none other than _Rayquaza._ We now go live to the Canalave City Sinnoh National Archives, where we have Ronald Sterling, a professor of theology at Canalave University, will supply us with more information."

Ronald, a short man with a terrible haircut, appeared onscreen. "Rayquaza's appearance in the Citadark Footage has proven the existence of the most powerful pokémon to-date, one the legends say was second only to Arceus. Even more astonishing is the fact that, according to the satellite footage, Rayquaza was actually _defeated _in battle by two or more pokémon. Not only that, but the two pokémon were actually extremely common. One, a Treecko, appears in the footage for only a second before the image becomes obscured by a meteor, but appears to launch an Absorb attack."

'Is that right," the original newscaster said, the screen splitting to show both their images.

"Yes. Absorb, in case you don't know…"

Stephanie was amazed. After what seemed like an eternity of silence (it was really just five seconds), Adam took her aside.

'I told you!" he said.

Finally, Stephanie responded with, "So what if you predicted the battle? Just because you win the lottery doesn't mean you know the numbers before the drawing."

"Fair enough. But look back at the footage. Do you see anything unusual about the scenery, specifically the cloud the battle takes place on?"

Stephanie, for the first time, looked at the cloud. "Adam, all I see is a…no! That can't be right! It looks…it looks like…"

"Yep! It's your sister's gym. Don't you recognize me? I _designed_ your sister's gym! Based off of the very image you see here! Surely, you've been inside the center room where your sister battles from. If you have, you must have looked at the ceiling directly over her head. If you have, you've seen the perfect-square of what appears to be fire, painted onto the ceiling. Tell me, what would fire be doing in a flying gym? Nothing – it's actually an image of the meteor, the only thing in the whole gym I painted myself! I designed the gym to model this –"

A chorus of "Shh"s silenced Adam, but he had made his point on Stephanie. Without another word, they both slipped outside.

"Alright! Alright! I get it! But let me ask you this – what do you plan on doing with this information?"

"I don't know! Right now, all I want to do is return to the Sky Tower."

"But you don't even know where to look!"

"Not yet, but I have a plan," Adam said as he walked back inside.

Stephanie returned to the Space Center to find Adam sneaking through a back door labeled "MISSION ARCHIVES: Authorized Personnel Only". Normally, she would not enter a door she was not permitted through, but she knew that if Adam got caught, she would loose all possibility of returning to the Sevii. Though it filled her with guilt, she ran through the door.

Stephanie found Adam at the end of the hall, who merely nodded to acknowledge her presence, and pointed at a security microphone (cameras had been banned in the Hoenn following a series of lawsuits). Adam returned his attention to a computer interface next to him, and rapidly began typing on the keyboard. Stephanie understood nothing until a familiar image popped up – the original meteor image.

"That's what we needed," Adam said, pointing to text beneath the picture:

**Image OR5-1350.2: "Citadark "**

**Satellite Coordinates:**

**43 degrees, 12 minutes, 56 seconds North**

**64 degrees, 27 minutes, 11 seconds West**

"You got the _exact _coordinates of this tower? How?"

'It was simple – all I had to do was guess the password, and the computer gave me any information I asked for."

"What was the password?"

"Space."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Now come on! We have to go!"

Adam ran out the door, but Stephanie stayed behind. After imputing a few more commands into the computer, she was satisfied, and followed Adam.

"What were you doing?" Adam said.

"I returned the screen to the password input. This way, no one knows we were here."

Adam and Stephanie ran out of the Space Center and returned to a walking pace, wandering from building to building. When they entered the gym, the scene was much like that in the Space Center, but with a more startling image on the TV. Two sentences were written in red on a black screen:

**ATTENTION**

**This broadcast has been classified by the Hoenn Government.**

**Any attempts to view information in this broadcast is punishable by two months in jail.**

Adam was shocked. Stephanie was shocked. The other trainers were shocked. Even the man dressed in all black was shocked, but he did nott show it. Instead, he calmly took a position at the back of the crowd, keeping careful watch on both Adam and Stephanie. He had followed them here from the Space Center, and witnessed something very disturbing. Careful not to draw attention to himself, he withdrew a micro-sized cellular phone.

* * *

The shaded figure approached Gateon Port when his cellular phone began to beep at him.

"Sir," a male voice on the phone said, "there's been an information leek. Two children appear to have learned of the Sky Tower, which means they could know about the lab. If they leave now, they're expected to be within ten miles of it in…just over a week, sir," the voice said, wincing at the end.

"I thought I told you to remove all the evidence!" he yelled.

"We're sorry, sir," the man on the other end of the line apologized, "but we classified all the information concerning the lab over three years ago."

"Then explain to me why two _children_ have somehow determined the laboratory's location!"

"It's impossible! Perhaps they're just going after something else. Rayquaza –"

"Quiet! Don't give me any of this 'Rayquaza' garbage – if they were going after a Rayquaza, they would've just gone to Hidden Tower, or Sky Pillar, or any other typical Rayquaza-spotting location, and would've come to the same conclusion everyone else has – Rayquaza is a myth! It has never been caught on camera for this reason alone!" the man said. He was lying, of course, for he had seen Rayquaza on three separate accounts: once when he first built the lab, he saw it in the distance, and he saw it again the night he first set out to return to the eight regions. The third, and final, time he saw Rayquaza was when he was hunting his enemy…but the meteor did a good enough job of doing that for him.

_Yeah._ He thought. _The meteor did a great job – until you messed it up and _saved_ him! Oh well…no one ever saw him past the next day, anyway…_

"Sir, pardon my correction," the man on the other end of the line said, bringing his boss back into focus, "but Rayquaza has been caught on camera – it's all over the news! Have you been watching ONBS?"

"What? When was this?"

"About an hour ago, sir. In fact, it came from the footage of that meteor we saw – Rayquaza, blasting it to bits."

The figure stopped in his tracks. Only slightly audible, he uttered into the phone, "Ready my chopper. Be at Gateon Port within the hour. If anyone tries to stop you, tell them General Rich sent you."

"And if they still try to stop me?" the other man said, though he already knew the answer – he just liked to hear Rich say it.

"Kill them. And leave no witnesses," the General said, fifteen minutes from Gateon.

\\\End of Chapter Four///

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Five – Fugitives


	5. Chapter Five: Fugitives

Author's Notes – I feel it necessary to say I am using .net for spellings of place names, such as Mossdeep. Additionally, the rating has been upped to "T" because of death that may occur in the future.

Somewhat more importantly, after receiving a review for the last chapter, I wanted to clarify a point. Whenever the Sky Pillar is mentioned, it is referencing the actual pillar found in the southern Hoenn Region. The Sky Tower, on the other hand, is the dungeon from PMD1. However, many historical figures (such as Wallace and Professor Birch) incorrectly translated the Sky Pillar as the Sky Tower. This will cause many characters (in fact, all of them except for Adam and Stephanie) to call the Sky Pillar the Sky Tower.

However, as TobiRuun pointed out to me in the review, I made the same mistake many of my characters will: I called the Sky Tower the Sky Pillar in chapter four. This has been corrected. Thank you for pointing this out. I apologize for any confusion.

\\\Chapter Five: Fugitives///

The Hoenn TV Lilycove branch burst into chaos. Reporters were lined up at both the secure lines and the pay phones, attempting to reach even the lowest of low-level representatives from the Hoenn government. Executives barked orders at other, lesser executives, demanding to know what could have possibly been important enough to warrant a government-censorship message appearing on _their _screens. At last, someone had the idea to return to the footage that they had already broadcast…

* * *

Adam and Stephanie stared at the screens, as did all the other trainers in the gym. Within moments of the mysterious message's appearance, however, the screen was once again filled with the familiar face of Hoenn TV's anchorwoman, Gabby.

"We apologize for any inconvenience," Gabby began, "but the Hoenn Government has just informed us that all images not already broadcast are now classified. We will now review what information is not classified."

A very obvious rewind appeared onscreen, suggesting that Hoenn TV was simply going to rebroadcast their original report. Instead, a "Please Stand By" message appeared, followed by Gabby.

"We will now broadcast all the unclassified footage from the Citadark Meteor, and then attempt to shed light on the situation by…um…interviewing some guests from the Ever Grande City Museum," Gabby said. It was incredibly obvious she was improvising.

Once again, the initial image of the meteor appeared, and the images began to play as a slow movie (the individual images were visible, but they still ran together). Since the video had no sound, narration was added to the move.

"Here we see Rayquaza actually being attacked by an Absorb…"

Many trainers instantly returned their attention to the images. Several had pads of paper out and could be seen furiously taking notes, in an attempt to discover the secret that allowed a Treecko to take down Rayquaza. Another five-or-so trainers could be seen taking illegal copies of the footage on portable video recorders. Still others could be seen simply staring at the screens, awestruck that Rayquaza had finally been proven to exist (or, awestruck at the enormity of the hoax).

"What do you think's going to happen, now that Rayquaza has been found?" a voice behind Adam said. Spinning around, he saw a trainer who appeared to be from Sinnoh. Judging from the four blue ribbons on his jacket, the trainer was an experienced coordinator, no doubt on his way to the Lilycove Contest Hall when the news first arrived in Mossdeep.

"Not sure," Adam replied, trying not to give anything away. "I suppose trainers will rush on Pacifidlog."

"You really think so? I've seen the footage, and that doesn't look like the Sky Tower."

"Touché," Adam replied. The other trainer walked away, apparently uninterested in the conversation. Almost instantly, Stephanie materialized behind Adam, directly between him and the television.

"There seems to be a lot of footage we haven't seen," Stephanie said, pointing. To Adam's surprise, the screen continued to show images of a meteor, with Rayquaza only occasionally appearing at the edges and the Treecko appearing even less frequently.

"I guess the satellite focused on the meteor because that's what it was programmed to do – look for bizarre space objects as it mapped the uncharted areas of the globe," Adam said sheepishly. In truth, he could not care less about the footage or whatever it had to say about Rayquaza – all he cared about was returning to Treecko, or at the very least leaving him some sort of message.

It is worth nothing that at this point, had conveniently left Pokémon Square, his rescue team, and his friendship with Treecko from the story he told Stephanie. Indeed, all he told her was that he had become a pokémon through unknown means and that he had reached the top of the Sky Tower with a pokémon he met, whom he later confirmed to be Treecko. He had told Stephanie that he intended to return to the Sky Tower so he could once again see Rayquaza. His actual plan was to leave Stephanie at the Sky Tower after they saw Rayquaza, and proceed to journey southwest (for he could remember the direction), towards his old team base.

"You may be right," Stephanie said, yanking Adam from his daydream. "However, I still don't get why you're not interested in Ray –"

A loud beeping noise cut Stephanie off, and all faces in the room wheeled towards the television. The screen instantly filled Adam and Stephanie with panic. Once again, a familiar message dominated the screen:

**ATTENTION**

**This broadcast has been classified by the Hoenn Government.**

**Any attempt to view information in this broadcast is punishable by two months in jail.**

**FURTHERMORE,**

**The following images are of wanted fugitives from the Sevii region.**

**They are guilty of stealing a Sevii – Kanto joint government vehicle, and of acquiring illegal information regarding the Citadark Meteor.**

**The criminals are believed to be in the Hoenn region's Mossdeep City.**

**A $100,000 reward will be given to anyone who captures and brings to a prison the two criminals.**

Beneath the ominous message, three images appeared. One image showed Stephanie outside the Chrono Island Gym, another image showed Adam outside his home, and the third image showed both of them escaping the Sevii islands, likely taken by the police boat they thought ignored them.

The room erupted into chaos as some nearby trainers identified Stephanie and Adam. Two dozen pairs of arms each threatened to yank Stephanie and Adam's limbs off, and the mob slowly began moving towards the door of the gym.

From deep within the gym, a female voice boomed, "Stop!"

The crowd instantly froze in place. Whether this was by their own will or the influence of the speaker was uncertain, but the latter case seemed the most likely as Lisa (one of the Mossdeep City Gym Leaders) appeared in a blinding flash of light.

"I am Lisa, one of the Mossdeep City Twins, and as a gym leader, it is within my authority to retrieve fugitives and arrest them myself. All of you, _out of my gym!"_

Most of the trainers left, grumbling as they did so. Those that stayed behind were teleported outside by Lisa, who instantly locked the doors, trapping Adam and Stephanie inside.

"Alright, you two, it's time to probe your minds."

"What?" Stephanie and Adam exclaimed together.

"Oh, right. I'm a psychic, you see. Usually, my brother would be here to probe both of your minds simultaneously, but one at a time will have to do. No, this is not optional," Lisa said as Adam opened his mouth to protest.

Lisa began with Stephanie. Mind probing by inexperienced psychics is a relatively painful process that often leads to one's mind being damaged in some way, such as amnesia. Luckily, Lisa was no amateur.

"Hmmm…" Lisa said as she finished Stephanie. "It would appear as if you are mostly innocent. Mostly."

Adam knew he was next, and instantly began to empty his mind. He knew more than enough about mind probing to understand its flaws. Unfortunately, he was unpracticed in the art of defending himself (there were few psychics on Quest Island), and he understood he would soon be held at Lisa's mercy.

Lisa altered her attention to Adam and prepared a mind probe. Within five seconds, she recoiled in fear.

"What – no! This cannot be!"

"What is it?" Adam asked, a mixture of amusement and confusion.

"Your memories…I…they're…" Lisa continued to stammer. Finally, it appeared as though she regained her composure. "It would appear," she began, carefully choosing her words, "as though you have two sets of memories, with the second beginning five years ago and continuing for two years."

Adam understood what Lisa was talking about. Stephanie also understood, all of her doubts vanishing.

"However, these memories prevent me from probing any of your others, other than a dream you appeared to have last night."

_Right…_Adam thought. _The dream…_

Lisa appeared to be contemplating something. At last, she said, "I tell you what – as a gym leader, I have the rite to pardon anyone of their crimes within the Hoenn, but you'll still be wanted in the other regions. Other than that, the best I can do is you get to where you want to go…Citadark Isle, from the looks of your friend's thoughts."

"Hey!" Stephanie screamed.

"Relax…I was required by law to check for that, anyhow."

Lisa took a step back. "Yes, I will send you to Citadark. Keeping you a secret from my brother will be difficult, as we usually link our minds…but I should manage for a few days, at least."

Adam and Stephanie began to ask how they were going to get to Citadark when they were blinded in a flash of white light. Instantly, their surroundings had changed. No longer were they inside the Mossdeep City Gym. Instead, they appeared to be standing on a pokémon battle arena, within a giant metal sphere. A hole in the sphere showed they were on a rocky island, overlooking the open ocean. Adam thought he saw a bird in the distance, but other than that, only the ocean was visible.

"I guess…" Adam began.

"You don't think…" Stephanie added.

"I do. We've arrived in Citadark."

"Alright…" Stephanie said, recovering from the teleportation. "So…what do we do now?"

"Now we…well…look around. You obviously knew, and I also knew, that Citadark was likely the closest place to the meteor, based on the coordinates we got."

"Well, judging by the name, I figured it'd be obvious."

"That's true, but I have a feeling it may be farther away than we thought. There's got to be a GPS, or a map, or something we can use."

Adam and Stephanie both looked around, but found nothing. At last, Stephanie stumbled upon an old computer that (by some miracle) still had power. After about five minutes of futile efforts, Stephanie managed to change the language to "Kanto, Johto, Hoenn" (which was officially "Kanglish", and also the language in the Sevii) and log onto the internet. Three more minutes of searching followed by ten minutes of loading yielded an online world atlas.

"This looks…promising," Stephanie said as she entered the coordinates.

Two _more _minutes passed. Finally, the computer showed a satellite image. A large red "X" was positioned over a portion of the ocean northwest of Citadark.

"Alright…there's probably an island there," Stephanie said. "I just wish there was someway we could determine where we were in the ocean. Without any landmarks, I don't know how we'll know where we are."

"I doubt we have to worry about that," Adam replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Look here," Adam said as he pointed at the screen. A message was written in the ocean near the "X".

**NOTE: Actual geography unknown. Ocean used to fill gaps in satellite images.**

"See? There's probably land for miles around. I doubt we'll miss it," Adam continued, "plus, any land that is there was probably supposed to be mapped with the satellite that was destroyed in the meteor footage."

"And how will we find our way on land?"

"I was a pokémon, remember? I saw more than just a tower made of clouds. There was definitely land around that tower."

"Right…How do you plan on crossing the ocean?"

"We just…" Adam trailed off. Once again, it seemed as though they would need a boat. This time, there were none conveniently lying around. "We need to search. This is obviously a larger facility. There must be _something_ we can use."

Adam and Stephanie (one again) began to search the building. After about one hour, they finally came across a door (other than stairs) that was unlocked. This door yielded a hallway with yet another door at the end of it. Adam and Stephanie both approached the door with caution. Based on everything else they had seen, the facility was abandoned, and apparently belonged to the (now disbanded) terrorist organization known as "Cipher". One look at the door told Adam all he needed to know:

**ETOPHUUT**

"Well, this is no help at all!" Adam exclaimed.

"Not really – it's actually quite good. It means 'Storage' in Orian," Stephanie said.

"You speak Orian? Why did you have to translate the computer?"

"I took a class in fifth grade, but I know very little," Stephanie said, ending the conversation and opening the door.

Within five minutes, Adam and Stephanie were racing back into the spherical room. Adam held in his hand two portable GPSs, which Stephanie insisted Adam bring despite his "mental map". Stephanie, on the other hand, carried a "portable" radio that was only portable in the sense that it used batteries.

Finally, they arrived back in the spherical room. Relieved, they dumped their possessions onto the floor, breaking one of the GPSs (luckily, the other one still worked).

"Alright," Adam said.

"Adam, I hate to put a rain cloud over your parade," Stephanie began, "but we still have no way of crossing the ocean."

"That…is exactly right," Adam said as his spirits left him. "But we may still find a way in this room. Let's keep looking!"

Adam and Stephanie continued to search the room. Eventually, they found a small panel on the wall covered in buttons. Most of them were in Orian, none of which Stephanie could read. Finally, they reached the last button:

**XD001**

"X-D-zero-zero-one? What is X-D-zero-zero-one?" Adam said.

"I'm not sure, but since we can't read any of the others…" Stephanie said as she slammed her hand onto the button.

Nothing happened.

"Well…this…this…flat out sucks," Adam said, his despair obvious in his voice. "We came all this way – only to be beaten because of a _language!"_

"No! We just have to keep looking," Stephanie said, her heart not really believing her voice. She turned towards the large hole in the sphere, though which the open ocean was visible. Night had begun to fall, but neither she nor Adam was tired. Suddenly, a brilliant idea entered her head, albeit a dangerous one.

"Unless you're willing to risk…" she began again.

"Risk what?"

"Well, I didn't mention it earlier because it's so dangerous, but we could _fly, _provided the distance was short enough."

"Define 'short enough'."

"About thirty miles."

"If you could fly thirty miles, why didn't you just do that back at the trainer tower?"

"The technique I want to use is extremely dangerous. None of my pokémon can fly half a mile, simply because I prefer to walk to cities as opposed to fly to them. But there is a technique used only by extremely desperate trainers."

"Please, continue."

"Alright. A trainer will fly on the back of one pokémon for a specific distance, say, a quarter of a mile, and then release another pokémon, transfer onto that pokémon, and recall the first pokémon into a pokéball. Unfortunately, most trainers do not reach their destination, as they overestimate their pokémon's strength or switch out too often."

"Why would switching too often be dangerous?"

"I thought it would be obvious – they fall."

"Oh."

Fifteen minutes later, Adam and Stephanie were on the back of a Pidgeot. At Stephanie's command, Pidgeot rode off into the night. Adam's mind was filled with ideas of finally being reunited with Treecko. Stephanie's mind was filled with ideas about finding Rayquaza and determining how Adam's life story was possible. Pidgeot's mind was filled with thoughts of the black ocean below and the long flight ahead.

* * *

The helicopter thundered eastward, Citadark Isle behind it, rapidly approaching Gateon. The pilot was unsure of the course. If two children were on their way to discovering the lab, why weren't they going _toward_ the lab, or at the very least, "taking the children out"?

"I know what you're thinking," Rich said. "No, we must head eastward."

"Sir, if it is alright for me to inquire," the pilot said, "why didn't you just have me pick you up at Pyrite, if we were going to head back that way anyway?"

"Have you really forgotten the Pyrite Ellipse?"

In fact, the pilot had. The Pyrite Ellipse was the only one of its kind – a giant, "no fly" zone that engulfed both Pyrite Town and Realgam Tower that came into existence shortly after ONBS was conquered by Cipher.

"I see you are still unsure," Rich said.

"Actually, sir, I was just wondering, me being the pilot and all, where exactly I'm to go?"

"Give me just a minute," Rich said as he pulled out a small electronic device. "Did you get a good look at the children?"

"Not really, but they looked somewhat familiar."

"Like this, perhaps?" Rich said, showing the pilot his device. Filling the entire screen was a news broadcast, being streamed live, about two children from the Sevii region who appeared to have suddenly become trans-regional criminals.

"Exactly like that! Man – those kids stole a government boat?"

"It would appear so, but more importantly, they have given us our destination." Once again, Rich tampered with his device. "Travel to these exact coordinates," he said, pointing to latitude and longitude numbers that instantly appeared onscreen.

"You want us to go after them?"

"Affirmative," Rich said. After a moment's pause, he added, "actually, just the one of them. We really don't stand a chance invading a gym, so head to the second set of coordinates."

The pilot obeyed his orders, turning the helicopter ever so slightly, aiming directly for Quest Island. If the weather patterns remained as they did, they would be there by sunrise.

\\\End of Chapter Five///

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Six – Frontier


	6. Chapter Six: Frontier

Author's Notes – This story is not dead. Unfortunately, my updates have become scarce as of late, and this will likely continue, though not to the extent of this one. Also, I am trying to end this story in the 15-20 chapter range.

\\\Chapter Six: Frontier///

Adam leaped from Pidgeot to Staraptor for what felt like the hundredth time (it was actually only the seventy-eighth), nearly falling of as he did so. Stephanie, on the other hand, effortlessly transferred herself onto Staraptor as she recalled Pidgeot and took out the GPS she convinced Adam to bring. Once again, it showed they were currently en-route to their destination. Stowing the GPS away, Stephanie retrieved the radio and motioned for Adam to search for signals.

Tuning the radio was extremely difficult in mid-flight, especially when one had to switch birds every three minutes. Nonetheless, now that the sun was beginning to rise, Adam could clearly see why his efforts were fruitless: the radio could only pick up stations up to 110.3, while all the Orre stations were 150.1 and above. It should, however, have been able to pick up Johto stations (for the Johto is the closest region to the Orre), which Adam now searched for as he adjusted the dial down to 95.1.

"…for Professor Oak's Pokémon Talk! With your host, Professor Oak!" the radio blared. Adam quickly adjusted the station.

"…numbers are 3-3-7-0-1…" Adam adjusted the station again.

"…hurricane that struck the coast of Mossdeep just two days ago is now headed for the Johto region…"

"…Sinnoh religious extremists are claiming the footage of Rayquaza is 'a hoax, clearly meant to remove followers of Arceus from the path.' The Celestic Town religious authorities have not yet commented…"

The next station was all music. 

"…today is Wednesday, so it's time for Hoenn…"

"…everything will belong to Team…"

"…103.9, the Mew. And now we move into yet another development in the story of Stephanie Selphy and…" Adam adjusted the station. Moments later, however, Stephanie forced the radio from his hands and re-found 103.9.

"…was arrested late last night for teleporting the two children away from Mossdeep City. Their current whereabouts are unknown, but the combination of Lisa's confession and a teleportation-like flash of light appear to point toward Citadark Isle in the Orre region. Whether or not this is related to the unidentified helicopter leaving Gateon late last night is unknown. In other news, the Kanto National Pokémon Tournament and Contest is set to begin in three days. More on that…"

_A helicopter…we never saw a helicopter._ Adam thought.

"Hey!" Stephanie yelled. "Look over there!" She pointed at the horizon. At first glance, nothing appeared unusual. However, once Adam's eyes adjusted, it became clear that something very large was on the horizon: land.

Within fifteen minutes (and two transitions between birds), they were flying over grasslands. Without any warning, Stephanie took Pidgeot into a steep vertical dive, causing Adam to slide right off the front of the bird and land in a tree. Thankfully, he emerged mostly unharmed (he had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing requiring any serious attention).

As Adam brushed himself off, Stephanie recalled Pidgeot, stowing her pokéball in her pocket. Looking around, it became quite obvious they were in no land explored by humans, at least not humans that shared their discovery.

The grass was a pale green, not unlike that of seaweed, though this was clearly land-based. This grass ended abruptly at the shoreline, without the slightest trace of a beach. A faint scent of salt filled the air, though it had little effect on neither Adam nor Stephanie. The trees were unusually short, the tallest only fifteen feet tall, and they lacked any of the palm-tree-like characteristics of other near-the-shore trees. Additionally, they were few and far between, giving the area a grassland-like look.

"So," Stephanie began, "I guess…we made it."

"Yeah," Adam said with a glazed look in his eyes, "I guess we did."

"Now, where's this 'Sky Tower'?"

Adam shook himself back to reality. "I'll have to look for something familiar, so we can find a general direction," Adam said as he began to look across the alien landmass. The field they were standing on extended away from the shoreline for at least twenty miles, until it encountered a small strait of water glowing in the sunrise. Past that, several imposing cliffs stood dotted with caves.

"The cliffs. We should head toward the cliffs," Adam said. In reality, he had absolutely no idea whether he had even heard of the cliffs before, much less walked on them. Naturally, he would keep this secret from Stephanie as long as possible.

__They walked for hours, stopping only occasionally to eat some berries Stephanie found in a bush. Not even the water halted their progress, for it was surprisingly shallow, only four feet at its deepest point across its quarter-mile width. Despite their rapid progress, it was high-noon by the time they had reached the foot of the cliffs, and both were exhausted.

"Alright genius, we reached the cliffs. What do you plan to do now?"

"We should…um…climb the cliffs," Adam said, his confidence lessening with every word.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Stephanie inquired. "Adam?"

"Here – grab one rock in each hand, then move your feet. These cliffs can't be more than fifty feet tall."

"You're insane!" Stephanie replied, but soon found herself looking for handholds. Once she found a suitable line up the cliff, she began to follow Adam's instructions. Soon, however, she was able to move both her hands and feet simultaneously, allowing her to overtake Adam and reach a small level piece of rock jutting out from the cliff, large enough for both her and Adam to rest on. Eventually, Adam made his way over to the rock Stephanie was resting on and took a short break himself. Together, they climbed the remaining ten feet of cliff and were immediately blasted with a jet of superheated air.

The cliffs, as it turns out, were nearly identical on the other side. The top of the cliffs was about thirty feet across, and they extended toward the remainder of the continent for many miles. In the other direction, they appeared to end after just two. Neither of these facts was comparable to what lie in the center: at the foot of the cliffs, a mountain range began, with a volcano not less than two miles from where Adam was standing.

"Well, this is convenient," he said.

"Convenient? How is a volcano convenient? We have no way to tell if it's active –"

"Oh, it's active, alright. The question of whether it will erupt as we cross it is a more pressing matter, but I wouldn't worry too much."

"A volcano could erupt less than two miles away, and you're not worried? Do you have any idea how a volcano erupts? Immense pressure on rocks suddenly gives way, causing a massive explosion. A cloud of burning ash will scorch anything from here to that island we were just on! And this doesn't even _consider_ the fact that you're planning to climb it!"

"Calm down! I mean, it's not like I haven't climbed this volcano before."

"You climbed a volcano?"

"Yeah. Surely I mentioned that?"

"No, no you didn't."

"Oh. Well, now you know. Here's the plan: there's a cave at the foot of this cliff. That cave consists of multiple paths that lead up to the peak of the volcano. From there, it's easy going as we traverse the far side. After that, the only thing left between us and the Sky Tower is a big, arctic-like area. Got all that? Stephanie? Stephanie, are you listening? This is important. Anyway…"

In fact, Stephanie was not listening. Instead, she was inspecting the most peculiar object she had ever seen. Back on Chrono Island, it would not have seemed unusual in the least, but out here, hundreds of miles from civilization…

"Adam," she began, "what is this?"

Adam, having finally realized Stephanie was not paying attention to him in the least, turned to look at the object at her feet. After a quick glance, however, he soon understood the gravity of the object she was holding, and the crushing blow it dealt to all of his plans.

The object was an envelope.

As Adam reached down to pick up the envelope, Stephanie yelled, "Adam! Look! There's a seal on the other side!" and tore the envelope from Adam's hands. The seal, which appeared to be made of a substance not unlike wax, was embossed with the image of a Pelipper, an identical envelope in its grasp. The substance did not, however, hold like wax, and the seal broke almost instantly as Stephanie opened the envelope, despite Adam's halfhearted attempts at stopping her.

Inside the envelope was a letter, with long-since faded writing.

**CLIENT: **Nidorina

**MISSION: **Rescue Nidorino.

**DESCRIPTION: **Help! A pack of Poochyena attacked! I escaped, but Nidorino…he's still trapped!

**DUNGEON: **Mt. Blaze 7F.

**REWARD: **Green Gummi + ?

**RANK: **C

Beneath that, however, were some of the worst words Adam had ever read in his life, some of which were written in almost illegible handwriting, but with each dealing another blow that shattered any hope of Adam's simplified reunion with his friend.

**ACCEPTED TEAM: **Firewood (Founded by Treecko and Adam, latter deceased)

_**Complete mission; save us; 9F.**_

* * *

_Gosh!_ Rich thought. _These guys are idiots! They left their front door unlocked!_ He had managed to lure both of the parents of one of his targets (the boy) away from their home by having someone pretend to host a press conference at the Pokémon Center. Sure enough, no one noticed two-men in all-black uniforms helping a third, almost identical man and another in a bizarrely-colored suit out of a helicopter.

Unfortunately, their examination of the house had begun to appear fruitless – after searching the living room, dining room, master bedroom, and now the kitchen, nothing gave any indication as to how the boy even knew about the _landmass_ on which his lab rested.

_This place is worthless._ He thought. _Wait a minute, what's this?_ The General had just noticed a disturbingly familiar emblem on a card pinned to the refrigerator. Though it was poorly drawn, likely a last-minute attempt at a birthday gift, the symbol was quire clear: an egg with two wings on either side. _No, it can't be._

"Sir! You should come up here, to the boy's room – we found something."

Rich raced upstairs, knocking over what looked to be a cheap vase on his way. The moment he stepped inside, he was taken aback. Each of his three underlings were admiring a wood carving on the far wall. On the wood carving stood the legendary pokémon Rayquaza, surrounded by many other pokémon of equal stature. The carving looked more like an artifact from an ancient temple than a pastime for a Sevii child. At first, the general thought he may have been wrong about the identity of the boy. However, a closer examination of the carving revealed a meteor above the legendary serpent…and below it…

_Impossible! He was dead! We all saw him die!_ He thought. Then, he remembered, _No, he didn't die – he vanished. In those golden spheres. Just like you did._

"Lieutenant," he began, "what is the identity of the boy?"

"That would be Jonathan Robertson, sir."

_Thank goodness._ "So his name isn't 'Adam'?"

"No, sir."

"Very good. Then in that case –"

"Wait! Sorry, there's a footnote at the bottom of the page. His full name is Jonathan Adam Robertson, but he goes by his middle name."

"_WHAT?_" Rich roared. The lieutenant took three steps backward, and would have taken a fourth one had he not run into the wall. "We need to go back to the lab – _immediately._ Everyone into the helicopter. We're fueling up at our warehouse on Chrono Island, and then we travel back across Orre. I want to be at the lab by noon tomorrow."

The other two men raced out of the house and back to the helicopter, where they scrambled into seats in the back. The lieutenant remained behind.

"Why haven't you left yet?"

"Sir, the lab's likely overgrown by now – there's no way the computers would work. Even if the children do discover it, there'd be minimal risk."

"That doesn't matter – if we need power, we bring power. As of this moment, I am restarting the project." Rich said. Then, another thought occurred to him. "How many explosives do we have?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"How many explosives are in the warehouse?"

"Three, sir."

"Once we get there, I want you and the other men to bring them along."

The lieutenant had no idea what the explosives were for, but knew he had upset the general far too many times that day. "Yes, sir."

_Adam,_ the general thought to himself, _you came back from the dead because I made a mistake that is now beyond my power to fix. However, you appear to have no interest in your family, as you disgrace them in the most public way, and you obviously have no friends other than the girl, as there are no other children living permanently on Quest Island. Therefore, I must remove the only thing left you have to live for._

_ Such a shame, too – you probably won't even get there in time to see it._

\\\End of Chapter Six///

Coming Soon: Memories, Chapter Seven – Guide


	7. Chapter Seven: Guide

Author's Notes – *SPOILERS* (kind of) This chapter may appear misnamed, as the "Guide" will not actually start guiding until chapter eight. Also, I am not going to upload chapter seven until I have started on chapter nine (as seven and eight are more or less one very large chapter). Also, this chapter is considerably shorter than the previous two, comparable in length to the earlier chapters. Finally, I fixed another error TobiRuun has pointed out, concerning a "their" in Chapter Six, so thanks again. Just for the record, if anyone finds an error and mentions it in their review, I will put their name in the author's notes.

\\\Chapter Seven: Guide///

"Well? Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Stephanie had been interrogating Adam for well over half an hour, but Adam neither responded nor acknowledged her existence – he simply stared at the letter in his hand.

"I know you're keeping a secret. Fine! If you won't tell me, I'll just head into that volcano by myself!" With that, she trotted off towards the volcano.

"Wait!" Adam exclaimed. "You have no idea what it's like in there! You'll be incinerated instantly!"

"Well, excuse me! I thought you said climbing this mountain would be easy!"

"It is! It's just – well – hmm…Look, there's a trick to this sort-of-thing. Mt. Blaze is what's called a _Mystery Dungeon. _Every single time one enters it, its layout changes. What's more, there're traps and…things."

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, you'll occasionally enter a room and instantly be surrounded by pokémon. I –"

"Wait, did you say 'surrounded by pokémon'? You mean like in my sister's gym?"

Adam had entirely forgotten he had designed Juliet's gym. Naturally, he had designed the entire gym to by _identical_ to the Sky Tower – complete with randomly generated floors (thanks to computer technology and sliding panels), a harsh penalty for being defeated, and "monster houses". He had also written a program that would have allowed for such things as "wonder tiles" and "shops", but those were not included, as they made the gym too difficult. "Yes," he said, "exactly like your gym. Only with fire. Lots of fire. Oh! And with smoke. Lots of smoke. And also with strong pokémon –"

"Lots of strong pokémon?"

"Yeah."

"Great!" she said and continued walking towards the mountain, directly for a cave that had by this time revealed itself, aiming directly into the base of the mountain.

"Stop!"

"Why?"

"Because I haven't even told you what the letter was about!"

Stephanie stopped.

"This letter," he said, "is a 'rescue mission'. A pokémon in distress wrote –"

"Wait a minute – pokémon can't write."

"Yes, they can," Adam said, getting slightly annoyed. "Anyway, a pokémon in distress wrote this letter and delivered it to a Pelipper, who –"

"So how come this Pelipper didn't help the pokémon?"

"I don't know! Stop asking questions! As I was saying, this Pelipper delivers the letter to a small town –"

"You said this continent was uninhabited."

"Yes! It is! The _pokémon _built the town! They form _rescue teams!_ They _help each other!_" Adam said, fury in his voice.

"But –"

"SHUT UP!" he roared. "Sorry."

"Me too. So anyway, about the –" she trailed off. Slowly, she began to turn around.

"What is it?" Adam asked while he mimicked her movements.

"Nothing – I just thought I saw someone."

"That's impossible – we're the only humans around for hundreds of miles. If you saw anything, it was probably just a pokémon, and we should likely leave it alo –"

A child, slightly younger than Adam, appeared from behind the bushes. He was short for his age, or so Adam and Stephanie believed. His hair was a dark brown, and he wore clothes that could have quite possibly been worn by commoners during the middle ages, yet looked no more than a day old. His skin was a darker color than those found in the Sevii, but somewhat lighter than what was common in Hoenn and Almia. His eyes were a striking bright yellow, and he carried a look on his face of wisdom far beyond his age.

"Hello," he said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but it seems as though at least one of you has had some experience with this mountain, and quite possibly the western town. If I may be so bold as to inquire _how _you came to know of this continent?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Stephanie asked.

The boy sighed. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"I'm Stephanie, and this is Adam, and we're –"

"We're trying to rescue the pokémon from this letter," Adam said.

"What?" Stephanie whispered to him.

"I'll explain later. Long story short, the Treecko who wrote this is the same Treecko who helped me beat Rayquaza, and it sounds like he needs our help."

The child looked at both Stephanie and Adam with curiosity. "If you know pokémon in a rescue team, then you must have been in one yourself. And if you were in a rescue team yourself, then you clearly must have been a pokémon. Clearly this is not the present case, so tell me, _who are you and why are you here?"_

Normally, when one's most protected secrets are spouted by someone who has never met one before in one's life, one gets extremely confused. Adam responded in such a way, his face a mixture of confusion, distrust, and anger. Stephanie, on the other hand, was accustomed to answering questions from people who she did not know (for this happens often when one is the sister of a gym leader), and quickly responded.

"Adam has suffered the Curse of the Ninetales. He is here to see a friend he made as a pokémon five years ago."

The boy looked at Adam, apparently finding Stephanie's statement unusual. "Intriguing," he said. "Tell me, are you dead?"

Adam, who had finally regained his composure, responded with a rather sarcastic, "No."

"Are you still under the Curse?"

"No."

"Then you have obviously not been cursed by Ninetales."

"What?!" Stephanie exclaimed. "You told me you were under Ninetales's curse!"

Adam, who understood at last that his entire lie had come unraveled, began to speak, "I would rather not talk about that."

"Why not?"

"_A pokémon _died, _ok?"_ he yelled. A flock of Pidgey flew away rapidly, with another falling out of the tree before running after his comrades.

Stephanie, upset that she had made Adam so angry, was silenced. Neither Adam nor Stephanie spoke for many minutes. Fortunately, the child (whose name they still did not know), was there to break the silence.

"So," he said, "aren't you going to ask me how I know so much about the Curse, or this region, or even what my name is?"

The other two continued to not speak.

"Fine, then! My name is William, and my last name isn't important. You wouldn't even recognize it, anyway. I know about the region because I have lived here for most of my life, having traveled here when I was eight years old on the _Spirit of Uxie –"_

"Hold on a second," Stephanie said. "They may not teach us much history in the Sevii, but even _I _know the _Spirit of Uxie_ was one of the ships in the Stonian Expedition."

"Yes, it was. As I said, when I was eight years old, I sailed on the Stonian Expedition ship _Spirit of Uxie._ After a sudden storm, as I am sure you are aware, the _Spirit of Uxie _became separated from the other two ships, and was never seen again, save for a broken mast I believe they found three years ago."

"But I don't get it – the Stonian Expeditions were what discovered the Hoenn region, but they took place almost one thousand years ago!"

"Precisely, which brings me to my third point: the Curse. The Curse is a little known facet of Ninetales, having only been 'proven' within the last decade and never explored by science. It has three key parts. One, the bearer of the Curse _dies_ the moment the Curse is lifted. Two, the curse will change for every person. This whole 'turns you into a pokémon' idea came about because that is what most people fear the most. And three, perhaps most importantly, a Ninetales will only live for one hundred years, provided it does not inflict the Curse on anyone. However, it will live for an additional one hundred years every time it gives the Curse. It is for this reason that Ninetales are said to live so long, as they only need curse ten people in their lives to live for a millennium."

"And how," Adam asked, "are you involved in all this?"

"Simple. Seeing as I have lived on the _Spirit of Uxie, _and also as I am an expert in something most people believe is a myth, there is only one logical conclusion – I have lived for one thousand years."

\\\End of Chapter Seven///

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Eight – Memoriam

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Nine – Pyro


	8. Chapter Eight: Memoriam

Author's Notes – Hi. Just for an F.Y.I., I can now say for _sure _this story will be eighteen chapters long, possibly with an epilogue.

\\\Chapter Eight: Memoriam///

_William ran through the forest. His friend, Erich, ran beside him. Neither had been able to speak since the wreck, but both were in mutual agreement that surviving was more important than speaking. Of course, this decision often comes quickly to two people being chased by wild dogs._

_ Without breaking stride, William glanced up. The thick forest canopy replaced the clouds, with not a star to be seen. Looking forward, he spotted the one thing that could make the situation bleaker – a break in the trees. Inside the forest, whether they or the dogs were faster could be put to debate. Out in the open, however, there could be no question._

_ Naturally, Erich had come to this conclusion long before William had. Erich was two years older, and did not need to see the break in the trees to know the forest would eventually end. Unfortunately, neither he nor William had managed to come up with an idea for outrunning the dogs. It appeared as though, save some miracle, neither of them would return to the wreck alive, and they crew of the _Uxie _would have one less chance of finding a permanent home._

_ "Erich," William said, "I'm getting tired."_

_ "Don't worry! Look! See? There's a gap in the trees – we'll be able to outrun them in the open."_

_ "We both know that isn't true."_

_ By this point in time, the dogs were less than five feet behind them. On the slightly more positive side, they were only one hundred feet from the gap, though the sky remained dark green._

_ "Do you think there's any chance one of us will survive?" William asked again._

_ Erich did not want to answer. True, he had been contemplating ways that one of them could survive. Unfortunately, that almost guaranteed the other would be eaten, leaving the survivor to wander back through the treacherous woods for three days before returning to the wreck. It also meant one of them would have to knock the other one down, as neither could outrun the other any more than a few feet._

_ "No, not just one of us. We either both live…or neither of us lives."_

_ A growl from one of the dogs startled them into running faster. By this point in time, the field was clearly visible through the trees. As one of the dogs leaped at them, they gave a sudden burst of speed and shot out of the forest._

_ About ten seconds later, they both stopped running._

_ The dogs, it appeared, had called the chase off at the edge of the forest. They stood on the border of the clearing. A rather large dog growled and showed its teeth, but made no attempts to chase them. Grudgingly, it trotted back into the forest, the other dogs soon to follow._

_ Neither William nor Erich spoke. The field was small, barely even a mile square. Blades of black grass danced in the cool breeze, with the occasional tree or rock joining them. No animals could be seen, and even death would have been beaten by the silence. William buried his face in the ground, and rolled himself over to look at the moon._

_ "So," Erich began, "I guess those dogs were scared of the moonlight. Ha! Those cowards!"_

_ "I'm not sure it was the moon…" William began._

_ "What're you talking about? It's not like there's anything else in this fi – Oh crap, what _is _that?"_

_ They sky was dominated by an enormous, white object. Even the moon, despite being full, took backstage to the long, snakelike trail of light filling the sky. At one end of the light-snake, a large sphere of rock was enshrouded by the tail, being the bride to the bridal gown's train._

_ Suddenly, a large beam of white and purple light shot out of the rock, landing on a point less than one hundred feet from the edge of the forest. A bright flash of light, completely absent in sound, came next, nearly blinding William and Erich. Finally, the light died down, the beam faded, and the field was bathed only in peaceful light once again, returning the grass to its blackish color. Everything appeared ordinary, save for the long tail that still hung above the clouds._

_ "What do you suppose that was?" William asked._

_ "I don't know. Perhaps we should sleep in shifts tonight…you know, incase the dogs come back."_

_ "Yeah, sure…" William responded, his mind focused elsewhere._

* * *

_ William quietly stepped over towards Erich and shook his arm twice. Convinced that Erich was asleep, he crept towards the point at which the light struck the ground. Erich was a very light sleeper, so William had to be not only sure he was asleep, but also that he would not make a sound. Finally, he reached a blackened spot of grass – it seemed as though the light was not as harmless as he thought. Once his eyes found the center of the circle, however, he yelped, and Erich nearly awoke._

_ The creature, whatever it was, floated (yes, _floated_) two feet off the ground. It was comparable in size to Uxie, though it lacked the tail. Its head was unusually wide, and appeared to have what could only be described as a yellow shell instead of hair. It had two blue teardrops running beneath its eyes, the only sign of color on its pure-white face. Three more objects, matching in color, hang of both sides and the center of its "shell". Its body was wrapped within its two arms, which slowly opened to reveal a third, far larger eye covering its chest._

Hello, _it said._ Who are you?

_William screamed, racing back towards Erich._

* * *

I'm sorry, William, but I really have to go!

_ William's face was covered in tears, his arms being held back by Erich. "In that case," he said, "I vow to see you again."_

I don't think that will be possible, William. As I said, I go where the Star goes, and the Star is going away…

* * *

_William had been sulking for three days._

_ "Get over it! You need to move on! Look on the bright side – once we cross this mountain, there's just a little bit of forest until the volcano! We can't be two days from the wreck. We'll tell them we think we should just build the colony where the wreck is, and everything will work out for the best!"_

_ William did not respond; only grunted. He continued his soulless ascent of the mountain, heading toward a cave he and Erich had spotted an hour back. With the sun setting, the cave would be a good place to spend the night, and would also be far warmer than the snow-capped mountain._

_ The inside of the cave, however, was far worse than he had hoped. For one thing, it was coated in snow. More importantly, however, there was a large, fox-like creature inside it._

_ "I guess we should go, then," William began._

_ "Nonsense!" Erich said. "There're two of us, and we have those spears I made yesterday. If this creature means anything to us, it means _food_!"_

_ Erich strode up to the creature and yanked on its tail. Much to his surprise, the creature quickly awoke and tackled him to the ground. Even more surprising was the fact that it had nine tails, not one._

Why did you pull my tail?_ it asked._ Do you not know what happens when you pull my tail? You get cursed – your worst nightmares become reality. You could become an animal, you could forget who you are. You could –"

_"Enough!" William roared over Erich's screams. "I will take the curse in his place."_

I do not know if that is possible. But one human is as good as the next, I suppose. Tell me, why is it that you would sacrifice yourself for him?

_"I have lost a friend, and I will not loose another. Life is cruel, so anything other than what I have will be a benefit."_

Fair enough. But rules are rules, and I must give you something you do not want. But I will be merciful.

_"Thank you. I –"_

Your curse is thus: You will wander the land for a thousand years and not a second more. Now leave!

_"But –"_

Leave! _the creature said, releasing its grip on Erich. Both boys ran. _

* * *

_ "What do you mean, you're leaving?" William asked._

_ "You see, we have decided –" Erich said._

_ "Who's 'we'?"_

_ "The other crewmen. There's no way we'd survive in this land, so we're taking three of the lifeboats and returning to sea."_

_ "Why didn't anyone tell me?"_

_ "Well…you're not coming. That thing did something to you, William. You haven't aged a day!"_

_ "You'll never last out at sea – I hear there're storms with hundred foot waves and winds that blow you down without a thought!"_

_ "It's better than staying here. I'm sorry –"_

_ "Forget it!" William said, running off into the woods._

_ The crew left one day later. William was nowhere to be found._

* * *

"So," Stephanie began, "you say _you _were cursed by Ninetales? To live for a _thousand years_?"

"Well, yeah," William responded, "I am."

"Not much of a curse, if you ask me."

"You don't know what it's like – I tried returning to civilization, and I succeeded. But everyone you meet dies! You can't stay in one place for too long, either – people notice when you're perpetually ten. I tried training pokémon once, I even got a Ninetales, but it couldn't undo the curse, and as it couldn't curse anyone else, it died a hundred years later, while _I _have to last a thousand!"

"And what happens after those years?"

"Oh the Ninetales made it quite clear. You see, it said I was cursed to, 'wander the land for a thousand years and not a second more.'"

"You mean you die?"

"Pretty much!" he said. Ironically, he said it without ever changing his tone, keeping the cheerful voice he greeted them in.

Finally, Adam paid their conversation some interest. "How long do you have then, to live, I mean?"

"Fifteen days," William responded. None of the three spoke again for quite some time.

* * *

The helicopter thundered along, trailed by two others. General Rich sat next to the Pilot, who remained fixed on his destination. He did not know who the strange town below them was built by, nor did it matter. He had a mission to accomplish, and he would succeed.

"You may begin, but try not to do too much damage. We want lost lives, but I want at least one building to survive," Rich said, his voice lacking all emotion. "Just be sure it's not the easternmost one, okay?"

The pilot nodded, not bothering to question his obscure orders. The first fireballs reached the ground within seconds.

\\\End of Chapter Eight///

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Nine – Pyro

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Ten – Lustrum


	9. Chapter Nine: Pyro

Author's Notes – TobiRuun has pointed out an error I made (again), concerning a misspelling of one of my own characters' names. This has been fixed, and I thank you (again). Remember, I will mention anyone who points out an error like this in the author's notes, so don't be shy (of course, it will show up in the reviews as well).

Also, once I finish writing the Epilogue, I will go back and fix any errors (ones that no one pointed out, I have not fixed yet, etc.), re-write any portions of the story I feel need re-writing, and remove all the "coming soon" sections.

\\\Chapter Nine: Pyro///

Adam, Stephanie, and William were crouched behind a conveniently-located shrub, facing the entrance to Mt. Blaze.

"So here's the plan – you two will…" William began, quickly entering a conversation with Adam.

Stephanie, rather than join their conversation, (rather logically) asked, "Why are you whispering? Come to think of it, _why do we need a plan?_"

"What do you mean 'why do we need a plan'? One _always _needs a plan if someone's attacking something," William said.

"Yes," Stephanie replied, "but this is a _volcano._ Not something run by the government, not a bank, and _certainly _not something with traps inside."

"Well…um…alright. So what, we just walk in?"

"That's the plan!" Stephanie yelled behind her, already walking into the cave. Adam and William were quick to catch up.

* * *

Rich and the others had arrived less than one hour before, and had already restored the entirety of the lab, save the first floor (which had been overrun by pokémon that damaged most of the systems) and the "testing room", which was actually a three-foot-wide, one-mile-deep hole in the ground. Ten of his men stood before him, once again bearing the all-black or all-white uniforms that designated their ranks.

"I want the ten of you to restore the upper floor. With any luck, we still have enough of the isotopes to build a few more devices. I will be in my office. Do not bother me."

"Yes, sir!" they all shouted as they entered side stairway and disappeared from sight.

Rich turned around and faced the door to his office. It had been five years since he had last been in this room, though that was only for the brief period of time it took to download all their work and transfer it to their headquarters in the Kanto region. He pressed a small button next to a blank screen on the wall, causing the screen to jump to life.

* * *

Adam was the first to find the stairs. Much to Stephanie's surprise, they looked like…actual stairs.

"Somehow," she began, "those seem out of place."

"Doesn't matter," Adam said, "just climb." They climbed to the second floor, and the third, and the fourth, all in the same fashion. William and Stephanie soon entered into conversation.

"So –" Stephanie began.

"Do you begin all your sentences with 'so'?"

"No! I _was_ going to ask you about your experiences, but _now_ I don't think I will."

"Alright with me," William said, ending the (relatively short) conversation, just as Adam noticed the stairway to the fifth floor. The three of them ascended to the fifth floor.

Therein lay the problems.

For one, the temperature suddenly jumped, and lava pools appeared to be replacing walls. Another problem was the darkened state of the floor, which prevented them from seeing far into the hallways connecting rooms (Stephanie, however, was used to this – it was an 'upgrade' her sister constantly applied to her gym). Most importantly, however, they were quickly mobbed by twenty different pokémon.

"Oh dear! A _monster house!"_ William cried.

"What kind of name is that?" Stephanie inquired. Neither Adam nor William answered, much to her dismay. Of course, dismay soon gave way to blind panic as it became apparent they would be forced to battle.

"Does anyone have a Petrify Orb?" Adam asked.

"A _what?"_ Stephanie asked. Then, "Where'd the stairs go!"

"You mean you haven't noticed they don't follow us until now?"

"This is _impossible!"_

"Will you two shut up?!" William roared. "We need to think of a way to defeat all these pokémon!"

"Stephanie," Adam said, "you're a trainer. Go…battle…or something!"

"I can't beat twenty pokémon at once!"

Adam, Stephanie, and William appeared to be stuck in a corner. There was little to no chance they could fend of the pokémon, which were advancing rather slowly (some of them were slugma, so this could not be helped).

Suddenly, Adam yelled, "I have a plan!"

"What?" William and Stephanie said in unison.

"RUN!"

_Great plan, _Stephanie thought. They ran.

* * *

"Thank you for joining me today, Mr. Stevenson," the President of KJS Aquatics, Inc. said.

Mr. Stevenson said nothing. He had prayed for days this would not happen. Alas, it was not to be.

"As you know, Mr. Stevenson, your son, along with the sister of the Chrono Island Gym Leader, stole a Seagallop-class ferry and used it to illegally enter the Hoenn region. From there, they, once again illegally, downloaded information regarding the Citadark Meteor Explosion and teleported to the Orre region, where they have been missing for two days. Is this correct?"

"Yes, it's all correct," Mr. Stevenson said, strain in his voice.

"Thank you. Now, I know you believe I am here to fire you."

A spark of hope flashed across Stevenson's face.

"However, with the Seagallop ferry presently in the Lilycove Harbor, and with the S.S. Tidal going out of commission next year, how would you operate the ferry between Lilycove, Mossdeep, the H.B.F., and Slateport?"

Stevenson was shocked. "You're serious," he said.

"Absolutely! I already have tickets for the Anne. How ironic we have to use another company's ship to transport our people. Either way, this has given us a unique opportunity. Hoenn is where all the people are going, so that's where all the money is! Whether he intended to or not, your son's illegal boatnapping could earn us a fortune!"

"Well, sir, I guess I have to do it!"

"Excellent. Here's your ticket. We'll have the Seagallop waiting for you in Lilycove in one week. Since the Anne stops in Olivine for three days, I thought it'd be fitting to give you and your family some time to relax. Now, get going!"

Mr. Stevenson began to leave.

"One more thing!" the President said. "I sincerely do hope your son is okay. I can't imagine what your family must be going through."

_No, you can't,_ Stevenson thought. "Thank you, sir. It means a lot," he said. Finally, he turned out of the office and shut the door behind him.

* * *

"Hurry! I can see the stairs from here!" Adam shouted. William rushed passed him, eager to be the first one to escape the army behind them. Stephanie went up next, followed by Adam, who narrowly dodged a flamethrower that would have made the lava seem like dry ice.

Breathless (well, almost), they collapsed onto the floor. Stephanie thought she saw something off in the distance, and rubbed her eyes. Scarcely believing their luck, she now lacked any doubt – the room they had just entered had the stairs.

Naturally, this meant they were now (as they climbed the stairs the instant they noticed them) on level seven. Of course, being on level seven meant one thing: they had to complete the mission. Adam flashed the rescue letter out of his pocket:

**CLIENT: **Nidorina

**MISSION: **Rescue Nidorino.

**DESCRIPTION: **Help! A pack of Poochyena attacked! I escaped, but Nidorino…he's still trapped!

**DUNGEON: **Mt. Blaze 7F.

**REWARD: **Green Gummi + ?

**RANK: **C

**ACCEPTED TEAM: **Firewood (Founded by Treecko and Adam, latter deceased)

_**Complete mission; save us; 9F.**_

"There should be a trapped Nidorino on this floor," he said. "With luck, the Poochyena will be fairly low level. Funny, I didn't even know there _were_ any Poochyena on this floor."

"Don't suppose it matters," Stephanie said. "That should just make them easier to find."

They wandered the halls slowly, as items appeared unusually scarce in the dungeon. What did not appear scarce was the lava, as a large burst of an air bubble soon reminded them.

"Have you ever fallen into lava?" William asked no one in particular, pointing at the lava. "It's a fairly unpleasant experience. Even if you don't get killed by the burns, your brain looses its ability to process anything but pain for days."

"Why would you bring that up now?" Adam asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to emphasize how dangerous trekking into this volcano is. With all the lava, I mean."

"Isn't it 'magma'?" Adam interjected. Stephanie groaned.

* * *

Steven Stone, President of the Hoenn Region Republic, stood at his desk in Ever Grande City, facing his cabinet.

"I trust the video has become classified?"

"Yes, sir."

"And the children?"

"Still unknown. We believe they are somewhere in the region west of Orre."

Steven, caught off his guard, fell backward into his chair. "So someone _else_ knows about the region. You all know we cannot allow this information to be made public. If word gets out what we were doing –"

"Sir, there's no way they know about that."

"Either way, I want them brought to me. Alert the HSP. We cannot allow our secrets to fall into the hands of our enemies."

* * *

As luck would have it, the Nidorino had escaped days before, leaving a note (half burned) alerting any potential rescue teams that the Poochyena had run off in search of better prey, after holding him captive for a week. To William and Stephanie, this meant one less pokémon to deal with. To Adam, this presented a startling issue.

"Why do you suppose Treecko passed the target for the mission?" Adam asked.

"Who? Oh right, your pokémon friend," Stephanie said. "Maybe he ran into a monster house. Or was hurt to the point he had to run for it. Or –"

"Alright, I get it. Do you think he's still alive?"

Stephanie did not answer that. Truth be told, she had little reason to believe Treecko was alive. Yet as they approached the next room, it became apparent the truth would reveal itself: the stairway to the ninth level was plainly visible, and there were no pokémon in sight.

* * *

Grace Iva, news reporter for Jublife TV, stood outside the city which bore her company's name. "As you can see, the entire Jublife City is being evacuated following an attack on the Hoenn embassy that lit the building on fire. Firefighters are struggling to seal off portions of the city limits, while all of the downtown area has been engulfed in flame.

"My dear friend, and Oreburgh City Gym Leader, Roark James, has perished in the chaos. I dedicate this broadcast to him…"

* * *

The children walked slowly through the final hallway (which they confirmed thanks to a Luminous Orb William found).

"I want you all to know, it's quite possible there's a monster house in this next room," Adam said. "If that is the case, Stephanie, I do not want you to use a pokéball. Treecko is definitely in this room. If he sees you forcing pokémon to fight, well…"

"I understand," Stephanie said. "But if there is a monster house, we have to do something."

"We'll use the Totter Orb you found. That should give us enough time to get Treecko and race to the stairs."

"Again?"

"Well, Treecko should have an Escape Orb on him, so we'll probably just use that."

They rounded a corner and were immediately greeted with the room. To their surprise, neither a monster house nor a difficult opponent greeted them. Treecko, however, could be plainly seen. So could his injuries.

Adam ran over to his fallen comrade. The burns on his arms showed evidence of a battle, but the grass-pokémon's opponent appeared to have run. A faint heartbeat showed the Treecko was alive, albeit barely.

* * *

"General, sir"

"Yes," Rich asked, pressing a button on his desk to allow his minion to enter.

"We have restored the upper lab, as you requested, sir."

"And the isotopes?"

"We're running short on Five, sir, likely only enough to build one device. Eight, however, is in plentiful supply. Apparently it stands up better against time."

"Very good. Begin reconstructing the devices. I trust all of our research remains in the database?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Excellent! I want the devices built by Friday."

"But sir, today is Tuesday. Building even one device in just four days would be almost impossible."

"Do we not have all our work, which you so cleverly retrieved from the computer?"

"Yes, sir, but –"

"Best get to work then. You are dismissed."

"Sir –"

"_Dismissed, _Major."

"Yes, sir," the major said.

* * *

"Treecko!" Adam yelled as he clutched his friend in his arms. Behind him, Stephanie and William observed the scene.

The pokémon stirred. Carefully, it opened its right eye not a quarter of an inch. "Cko," it mouthed, shortly before passing once again into unconsciousness.

\\\End of Chapter Nine///

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Ten – Lustrum

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Eleven – Desolate


	10. Chapter Ten: Lustrum

Author's Notes – Another short chapter. Also, a lustrum is a length of time equal to five years, here referring to the difference between when Adam became a pokémon and now.

\\\Chapter Ten: Lustrum///

"Have you succeeded in developing the devices?" Rich asked, glancing up from his computer.

"We managed to salvage our research, so your deadline will be achievable – but it will be unlikely we will be able to produce any surpluses."

"Very well. Set the countdowns. You are dismissed," he said as he motioned for his underling to leave. Turning back to his computer, he pressed a blinking green button on his keyboard, stood up, and walked out of the base. _Everything is falling into place, _he though.

{-------------------------------}

"Treecko? Are you okay?"

The gecko-pokémon in Adam's hands opened its left eye, before promptly closing it again. It repeated this exercise two more times, and did the same with its right. After another minute of resting, it promptly began to glow and unleashed a full-force attack on Adam, rapidly switching between moves to remove all hope for a defense.

"Ayah! Hey! _Stop!"_

The onslaught halted, but there was a look in Treecko's eye that signified Adam was unwelcome.

"Adam," Stephanie began, "why don't you let me?"

"Treecko, I –" she began, though was unable to finish, as she received the same treatment as Adam had. By this point in time, Adam began to grow impatient. As for how long Treecko was in the condition where he could attack, but merely waited for the right moment, he did not know.

William, on the other hand, was slowly moving toward Treecko as he got down onto his knees. "Hello. Listen, I'm not here to hurt you. Here," he said as he offered Treecko some food he suddenly procured from his pocket. Treecko eyed William suspiciously, but finally ate the food.

"Tree!" it shouted as it gobbled up the food.

"Now, Treecko, I want you to nod if you understand what I am saying."

Treecko nodded.

"My name is William. This is Stephanie," he said as he pointed to Stephanie, "and this is Adam."

"Tree?"

"Based on your reaction and what he has told me, I believe you have already met before, but I –"

Treecko once again commenced the barrage of attacks at Adam, causing Adam to scream extremely loudly. Fortunately, Adam was knocked unconscious within two minutes, both satisfying Treecko and ending the strain on William and Stephanie's ears. Treecko bolted from the cave, leaving Adam, Stephanie, and William with shocked expressions.

"I don't get it – why would Treecko run away?" Stephanie asked.

"Remember, Adam was a pokémon last time me met Treecko, and abandoned him. Returning now, as a human, has probably brought back old feelings of grief and hate that came once Adam left last time."

"But where did Treecko go?"

"Based on the direction it was running, west."

"Gee, thanks."

"Well, believe it or not, that is _extremely_ significant. I have never gone that much further west, because I thought it would be best to leave the pokémon there alone."

"What do you mean?"

William pointed beyond a ridge. "Over that way is Pokémon Square. Now I've never seen it, but –"

"Wait, what?"

"You don't know about Pokémon Square?"

"Not really."

William chuckled. "Well," he said, "I imagine Adam'll want to go there as soon as he's back to his health."

"But will he be alright, what with Treecko refusing him and all?"

"We can only hope so."

{-------------------------------}

"It appears as though all of our troubles have yet to pass," Alakazam said to the giant fish guarding the entrance to the Luminous Cave.

"What do you mean?" Wish

"I just had a vision of Treecko. He is alright – the Square seems to be the only area affected."

"So what is the problem?"

"Three humans are approaching the Square. Not from the sky as the others did, but on the ground."

{-------------------------------}

Adam mindlessly trotted up the hill, William and Stephanie jabbering behind him. His mind was racing, attempting to formulate a scheme that would allow him to talk to Treecko. Naturally, this formulating was frequently interrupted as he broke down in tears, which would often result in Stephanie and William futilely attempting to comfort him.

Whether it this hill or the next that would give Stephanie (and William, though Adam did not know it) her first glimpse of Pokémon Square, Adam did not know. All he cared about was Treecko, without whom the entire journey would have been a waste. Of course, this question was answered the moment he crested the hill. Adam was ground to a halt as he took in the scene. Of course, William and Stephanie both had a similar reaction, despite never seeing the Square before.

"Adam," Stephanie began, "is it _supposed _to look like that?"

"No, it isn't" Adam responded.

"That's what I thought."

{-------------------------------}

Steven Stone was busy at work, thankful the meteor scandal had been successfully applied and the children were now nothing more than a minor nuisance. Suddenly, a loud "Ping!" resonated from his desktop speaker, signaling a message from his secretary.

"Yes?" he asked, pushing a button on his desk to be heard.

"Mr. President," the secretary began, "the High General of the Army is requesting a meeting."

"Tell him I'll be ready in a minute."

"He is insistent."

"Sir, you have an important meeting with the Prime Minister of the Almia in ten minutes, remember? If you see the High General, you'll most likely miss it."

"Ah, let Wallace take care of it," he said. "You did say the High General was insistent. On second thought, let's give this one to the Senate. Wouldn't want those Almians getting too excited about Hoenn recognition, would we?" He paused. "Hello? Rebecca? Are you listening?"

"My apologies, sir, but as I said, the High General was insistent!" Rebecca said as she (and the High General) burst into President Stone's office.

"No matter," Steven said with a wave of his hand. Then, "Mr. High General, what could possibly bring you to my office at this hour?"

"Sir," the High General began, "at eighteen-hundred hours today, I received a memo from a general previously assigned to Operation Saffron."

"Remind me what Saffron was, again," Steven said as he motioned for Rebecca to leave.

"The Citadark 'Incident', sir."

"I thought I had all officers working on that project relieved."

"Well…"

"You didn't fire him, did you?"

"He was a good general, sir. The Army could not afford to loose him."

"And yet something has obviously gone wrong, or else you wouldn't be in my office."

"Something has. Here," the High General said, passing Steven the memo.

**TO: **High General of the Army of the Hoenn Region Republic Hayden Yorkshire.

**FROM: **General Gregory Alvin Rich

**SUBJECT: **Saffron

**MESSAGE: **HIGH GENERAL, it is with great triumph I alert you to the completion of Operation Saffron. The devices are being produced as I write. One Five and Two Eights will be delivered within three days. Operation Hammer of Regirock can now commence.

**AUTHENTICATION: **Gen. Rich, HRR Army, Code 035ACX1.

"So he's fulfilling our request for devices? What is the problem? This is wonderful news – we'll no longer be brought to our knees by the Kanto region!"

"Sir, the devices are set to an automatic timer when they are built."

"So?"

"The countdown lasts only 120 hours. Even if we get the devices on Saturday, we'll only have until Monday to use them, provided the countdown begins today."

"Are you telling me," Steven asked, "we only have _two days_ to use our devices?"

"There's more, sir. This memo was sent over our military network. Hidden from the public eye, of course, but still readable by anyone of a dozen-or-so officers. _This_ memo, on the other hand," the High General said as he pulled another sheet of paper, "was sent over my personal line. Hidden to all but me, though it is addressed to you."

**TO: **President Steven Stone of the Hoenn Region Republic

**FROM: **General Gregory Alvin Rich

**SUBJECT: **Saffron

**MESSAGE: **MR. PRESIDENT, the devices are already being built. I am preparing not two, but six Eights. One of these Eights will be used in a demonstration in an uninhabited area on Friday, at approximately the same time your devices will arrive. Provided a war has not been stared, a second Eight will be detonated on Saturday, over a city in the Johto, with an estimated half-a-million fatalities. Should the devices continue to remain unused, the third Eight will be detonated on Sunday, over Ever Grande City, with an estimated one million fatalities. In the event that no other devices have been detonated, the fourth Eight will be detonated from within Mt. Chimney, spreading radioactive and volcanic ash as far as Slateport City, with an estimated five million fatalities, and rendering the western half of the Hoenn region uninhabitable.

There is, however, a deactivation code, which will be imputed the moment you and your government transfer total authority to my division. If you do not comply, the Hoenn region will suffer irreparable damage.

**AUTHENTICATION: **Gen. Rich, HRR Army, Code 035ACX1

Steven did not speak for many seconds. When he finally did, his tone was strained, his words coming slow. "What is our Military Preparedness Level?"

"Delta, sir."

"I want it changed to Gamma. Immediately. And alert the Navy – the lab was a continent away, so they'll have to use boats or planes. If they travel by air, our missile network will shoot them down."

"Right away, sir."

"And get me a line to the Johto Prime Minister."

"Sir, the Prime Minister of Johto has been in the Almia region negotiating peace talks for three weeks. It will be nearly impossible to –"

"Then get me the _next _highest official in the Johto Government!"

"Right away, sir."

\\\End of Chapter Ten///

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Eleven – Desolate

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Twelve – Laboratory


	11. Chapter Eleven:  Dilemma

Author's Notes – No, you're not dreaming – this really is a new chapter. I know it's been a while (Sorry!). The updates will (Unfortunately) begin to slow down from here on out, but (fortunately) they won't be as slow as this one. By the way, I decided to split Desolate into two parts, Dilemma and Communication (I know the titles are bad).

\\\Chapter Eleven: Dilemma/

"Adam, it's probably not as bad as it seems." Stephanie said. Adam ignored her, and continued on his path: straight down the hill toward Pokémon Square.

"I'm sure your friend wasn't injured." Adam kept walking.

"You have no idea what could have caused this." For the third time, Adam ignored her.

William stepped up next to Stephanie. "I have an idea. Watch," he said. Much to the surprise of Stephanie (and Adam), William began an all out sprint toward Adam, tackling him to the ground. "Are you out of your mind?" he roared. "Look at that place – you could be killed instantly upon entering it, for all you know!"

Adam, who had finally left his trance-like walk, struggled to his feet. "Look, I came here for one reason – to see out if my experiences as a pokémon weren't a dream. Now that I know they aren't, I must to care out for my friend, even if he did abandon me. Look at that place!" he yelled as he pointed toward the Square. "Do you think that's the kind of place I want to see him running off to?"

William looked toward Pokémon Square. The answer to Adam's question came quickly to William, as did the reason for Adam's concern. The ground was pocketmarked with black craters, and there was a pile of burned wood where (though William did not know it) the Post Office once stood. "Fair enough," William said, "but riddle me this – once you found Treecko, how exactly were you planning to communicate?"

Adam could not answer William's question.

"Exactly. You weren't thinking."

"And I suppose you have a plan?" Adam asked.

"I'll admit, I do not, but I'm sure we can –"

"I have an idea," Stephanie interjected.

"Which is…"

"Just trust me, we have a way of communicating" Stephanie responded.

"You can't possibly have a way of understanding pokémon!"

"I do, actually. If you want proof, take out that letter."

Adam took out the (now nearly shredded) rescue letter from his pocket.

**CLIENT: **Nidorina

**MISSION: **Rescue Nidorino.

**DESCRIPTION: **Help! A pack of Poochyena attacked! I escaped, but Nidorino…he's still trapped!

**DUNGEON: **Mt. Blaze 7F.

**REWARD: **Green Gummi + ?

**RANK: **C

**ACCEPTED TEAM: **Firewood (Founded by Treecko and Adam, latter deceased)

_**Complete mission; save us; 9F.**_

"Where's the proof?" Adam demanded.

"Don't you see anything strange about the letter, something unexpected?" Stephanie asked.

"No."

"We have no idea what pokémon say, right? All we here is 'Treecko Tree!', right?"

"Yeah…"

"When you were a pokémon, did you ever remember speaking in a different language?"

"Now that you mention it, no! It all made perfect sense!"

"Exactly. Now, what language is this letter written in?"

"Why it's the language of Kanto, of cou – Stephanie, you're a genius! It's the language of Kanto! We can read it! Which means –"

"All you need to do if have Treecko, or any other pokémon for that matter, write down the message they want to give you. You may want to write down yours as well, just to be safe, you know. There is one small problem, however."

"What's that?" Adam asked as his spirits once again fell.

"We don't have anything to write with."

"Don't worry, we'll just steal some from the Pelipper Post Office!"

"The what?"

"Where else do you think this letter came from? You knew about this, William, right?"

"Well, yeah," William responded, "I've been around for a thousand years, and you think I haven't found a single letter? How else do you think I've learned about the Rescue Teams?" he asked rhetorically.

"You could have turned into a pokémon, too!" Adam offered.

"Shut up," William said. "By the way, which one of these buildings is the one we want?"

"The easternmost one, right on the edge of the cliff!"

"Adam," Stephanie began, "there is no building near the edge of the cliff, see?" She pointed at the pile of burnt wood, much to Adam's dismay.

"Well, this is just great. Anyone have a plan 'B'?"

"Sure," William said. "Help me look for a big stick so we can write in the dirt!"

Adam excitedly began scanning the ground, while Stephanie began to walk toward a nearby tree.

"Alakazam! Alakazam!" Treecko yelled as he charged at the yellow psychic, floating near the Whiscash pond. Around him, many other residents of Pokémon Square stood, having all retreated to the only place spared from the devastation that had been brought upon their land.

"Treecko? How? When we saw your team return without you, and empty-handed, we assumed –"

"I know, I know! But you have to listen to what I have to say! It's important!"

"Alright, alright," Alakazam responded. "Well?"

"Humans! Humans are approaching the Square!"

"We already know. What else could have caused this devastation? I saw them myself, approaching in their black birds, dropping fireballs from the sky…"

"What? When?"

"A few days ago. And there're more coming. But we'll fight back, won't we!" he yelled as the pokémon around him cheered.

"No, listen! You can't face them!"

"Why not? There're only three, and they're relatively young – likely only here to ensure the damage has been done. Once the Square was destroyed, I did what little I could from so far away to search their minds. Only one seems like a threat, and that's because he had a rescue letter – yours, in fact! How he got it, I don't know, but –"

"You could hurt one of them!"

"So? They have hurt us, so we'll hurt them!"

"But you don't know who you're hurting! All you know is they're human, and one got a letter!"

"And what, you do? We can't just go be nice to every human we meet. Just yesterday morning, three pokémon from _your team_ came running to the pond, babbling on about how the Decrypt Lab had been captured by humans, building some sort of…things. And I still have suspicions about Gengar's death."

"Gengar died saving a pokémon in _your _Rescue Team School, and besides, you don't understand!"

"What don't I understand?"

"One of them is Adam!"

"And you're not worried?" President Stone asked.

"Why should I be?" Johto Deputy Prime Minister Bill said. "Your HSP are the most elite force in your region, and our JSS aren't much better. This'll be taken care of in no time. At any rate, I don't think this 'General Rich' can follow through with his plans. There's always a deactivation code on the devices, remember? Just assemble your best scientists and crack it."

"But –"

"Look, if the Minister was here, things might be different. But he's in the Almia right now, and I won't interrupt the peace talks just because _you_ got a threat against _us_."

"Alright –"

"And Stone?"

"Yes?"

"If it does come to war, we side with Kanto. As always. Now good day."

A lone stealth airplane thundered through the sky, Citadark Isle at its back. Three men stood in the cockpit, ready to carry out their orders. Two manned the controls, while a third studied the radar. Suddenly, three red dots appeared onscreen.

"We have three unidentified aircraft," he said.

"They're probably just some tourists out exploring the volcano," one of the others responded.

"Negative on that, they're in front of us."

The two pilots glanced at each other before grabbing the radio.

"This is Hoenn Service of Protection S-Plane 32-01. You are entering illegal airspace. Please respond."

A second, later he repeated the message.

"They're still approaching, sir."

"Fire a warning shot."

The third man pressed a button, sending a missile arching around the three aircraft.

"They are not responding."

"Then shoot them down!"

"Firing missiles," then, "they are taking evasive action. They are returning fire."

"Perform evasive maneuvers."

"Taking –"

A loud "BANG!" sounded through the ship, accompanied by three sirens and some flashing red lights.

"We're hit! I cannot stabilize! Eject! Eject!"

Ten minutes later, three wet, exhausted HSP members crawled onto the beaches at Citadark Isle.

"Threat neutralized, General."

"Very good," Rich spoke into his radio. "Return to the lab and re-fuel. We have a delivery to make."

\\\End of Chapter Eleven/

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Twelve – Communication

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Thirteen – Laboratory


	12. Chapter Twelve:  Communication

Author's Notes – I'm making a minor edit to Chapter_ One_ for continuity when I release Chapter Thirteen. Feel free to save the current edition to your computer and compare it to the edited edition soon. Of course, you'll have to find the error yourself (ha!).

\\\Chapter Twelve: Communication/

It took Stephanie less than two seconds to find a suitable stick for writing with. Adam immediately dropped the twigs he had been gathering, seized the stick, and charged down the hill (much to Stephanie's annoyance), and likely would have run directly into Pokémon Square, had the sun not suddenly set behind a nearby hill.

"Well, I guess that means it's time to set up camp," William said as he picked up two small rocks.

"What're you doing with –" Stephanie began as William threw the rocks down onto the pile of twigs Adam left. The rocks banged together, creating a spark that caused the twigs to burst into flame. He spent the next minute gathering larger sticks and succeeded in creating a sizeable fire.

"Come on, Adam!" he said. "I have some berries we can eat for dinner!"

"Berries! What kind of meal –" Adam, suddenly overcome with the exhaustion, fainted in midsentence, just inside the circle of light caused by the fire.

"Stephanie," William began, his voice almost entirely deprived of concern, "how long has it been since you and Adam ate?"

"We had some food this morning," Stephanie responded in a similar tone to William's.

"Uh huh. And how long has it been since Adam slept?"

"That would be…um…two nights ago, when we escaped from a storm," she said. _Was that really only two nights ago?_ she thought.

"Right. Well, Adam's probably passed out from lack of sleep."

"Shouldn't we flip him over, so he doesn't wake up with dirt in his face?"

"Nah."

"Alright, Treecko, you have my attention. You say one of them is Adam. Can you prove it?"

"I…no, of course I can't _prove_ it! You can't _prove_ anything, at least not to you! All I know is that one of them told me another one was Adam."

"And you believed this _human?"_ Alakazam said, spitting out the last word.

"They did rescue me from Mt. –"

"I do not care if they _rescued _you, Treecko. Now go back to your home. _I_ will determine if these humans may enter the Square."

"And if I am correct?"

"Then they shall be allowed into town. _However_, if you are _wrong, _then me and all the other pokémon will come and give the humans a message. I should _hope _that you will join us, but if want to be a traitor, that's your own choice."

"You dare –"

_I said _GO! Alakazam blasted Treecko with the full force of his mind, teleporting him back to the Firewood Team Base.

"Adam? Hello? Are you listening?"

"Just give me ten more minutes of sleep, please!" Adam said.

"You are not awake, Adam."

"What?" Adam yelled, forcing his "eyes" open. Instead of the familiar hillside overlooking Pokémon Square, however, Adam merely saw flashes of several different colors. "Where am I?" he asked.

A figure appeared no less than five feet in front of him, though it lacked any substance, thus preventing Adam from discovering its identity.

"You are asleep," it said.

"Right. And who are you?"

"That is not important, right now. Let us just say I am someone who was formerly a friend, but could now, given the circumstances, be an enemy, of someone who is, given the circumstances, also your enemy."

"And by that you mean…?"

"I am a friend, given the circumstances."

"Which are…?"

"Not of your concern, for the moment. I myself do not know them, at least, not in any useful terms."

"Then why bother bring them up?"

"I did not bring them up, Adam, and you are getting distracted. You must listen. At sunrise, your mind will be immediately probed by Alakazam."

"Alakazam? You mean _the _Alakazam?"

"Yes."

"And why would he do that?"

"Pokémon Square was, as you can see, damaged, and he believes you are the cause. If you cannot prove that you are Adam, or you cannot prove you are not a threat, he and the other pokémon will decimate you."

"And how do I do that? I –"

The dream around himself fractured, as though the universe itself had been torn to pieces.

_Human!_ A voice bellowed. _My name is Alakazam. I am the leader of the pokémon in the town you see._

_Leader? Pokémon Square doesn't have a leader!_ Adam thought.

_I heard that!_ Alakazam yelled.

_Oh, this guy's good._ Adam admitted.

_Why thank you. Now stand…err…just wait there a moment as I probe your brain._

Adam waited in the (suddenly dark) dream, wondering how long it would take for Alakazam to reach a verdict.

_I am sorry._ Alakazam began after a few minutes. _Based on everything I have seen, you do indeed appear to be Adam. However, you also have gained the ability to block memories, intentionally or not. For this reason, I will not allow you to enter Pokémon Square._

"What?" Adam said aloud.

_However, _Alakazam continued, _I see no objection over you traveling to your old team base. Treecko is already there. Now I will inspect your friends._

Adam immediately felt the force on his mind ease, though the darkness remained. _I wonder if I can wake up now. _he thought. _How does one wake oneself up, exactly? By thinking it? Well, it's worth a try._ A few seconds passed. _Well, it seemed like a good idea. What to do…_

_The verdict is the same for your friends._ Alakazam said, this time without the mind-crushing force. _You will be allowed to enter Firewood's base, but that is as close as you are allowed to the Square. I will release the hold on your minds._

Alakazam left, causing the darkness to gradually fade as Adam, Stephanie, and William began to awake.

"I trust everything is positioned as ready?" Rich began.

"Yes, sir," the man entering Rich's office said.

"The device was positioned inside the cave, as I requested?"

"Yes, sir."

"By the method I described?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, Major. You are free to go."

The Major did not move.

"Is something the matter, Major?"

"May I inquire as to the placement of the device, sir?"

"What of it?"

"Why have it placed underground by teleport? Couldn't we have just traveled into the town and placed it inside the cave ourselves? For that matter, what's a town doing out here, anyway?"

Rich thought for a moment, then responded, "The device was positioned via teleport as that is the method we will use in the event of war – though in those cases, we will likely detonate the devices manually, rather than wait for their timers to reach zero. As for the town, well, what you saw is merely a façade, built there specifically so we could study the effects of detonating one of these devices near a town."

"Thank you, sir. I will leave now," the Major said as he left.

Rich pressed a button on his computer, causing the door to lock and all the vents to seal. Though the room was not soundproof, it would serve the purpose of concealing Rich's words well enough. The next phase of his plan was to begin in exactly one minute, and everything had, thankfully, gone according to plan. Even the Major's questions, though unprepared for, would likely reduce any rumors spreading about the town between his men. Turning back toward his computer, he began to input several commands…

"What was that?" Stephanie inquired.

"That was Alakazam – weren't you paying attention to what it told you?"

"It didn't tell me anything," Stephanie said.

"Nor me," William added.

"So, what _did _happen to you two?"

"I had a similar feeling to the one I got when we met Lisa, so I assume my mind was being probed. As to why, well, I had no idea," Stephanie said.

"And you, William?"

"The same thing, though I don't think this 'Alakazam' got very far. By chance, was this the same Alakazam that is a member of Team ACT?"

"How do you know about ACT?"

"The same way I learned about Pokémon Square – I saw a rescue mission for them once, about ten years ago. It was accepted by a Team ACT, lead by Alakazam."

"Well, that's great, but shouldn't we be doing something, like _heading into town?"_ Stephanie asked.

"We're not going to town," Adam responded.

"What?" William and Stephanie asked in unison.

"Don't worry, all hope is not lost – Alakazam said we were not allowed to go into town, for the fear we would be a threat. Can't say I agree with him, but then again I never liked the guy. However, he _did_ say we would be allowed to go back to my old base, which is directly past the town."

"And how do we do that – there's a cliff on one side and a forest on the other!"

"Um…the forest," Adam said as he began to walk down the hill, north of Pokémon Square, forcing William and Stephanie to follow.

One thousand miles above the surface of the earth, Hoenn communication satellite 57 detected a signal of an unknown source. Adjusting one of its many radar dishes slightly, it identified the signal as a single live, two-way video stream, complete with instructions on where it was to be sent. Following these instructions lead the satellite to beam the signal directly into the Hoenn Executive Residence building within the main region. Preceding this were a series of codes which, when relayed by the satellite, allowed the signal to travel directly into the computer screen of President Steven Stone…

"I see you had the base modeled after you," Stephanie said, noticing the distinct Cyndaquil shape of the building long before they reached it."

"Oh…yeah," Adam said. _Wow. He kept the building. That was nice of him._

Traveling inside, a problem soon presented itself – Treecko was missing.

"Well, this is fairly anticlimactic!" William exclaimed.

"Yeah," Adam said with disappointment.

"Perhaps we should wait here?"

"What else can we do?"

"We could leave, and then come back," Stephanie offered.

"But we could end up missing Treecko all together, and I don't want to risk that. We wait here – that's that."

"Fine," Stephanie responded. _I was only joking._

"Mr. President!" a person said with enthusiasm, having suddenly appeared in a video window on President Steven Stone's computer. "Such a pleasure to be speaking to you face to face."

"Who are you?" Steven asked as he imputed commands of his own into his computer. Within seconds, every member of his cabinet was gathered around the sixteen-inch screen, with several dozen other employees tracing the video to its source.

"You can't figure it out? How about I give you a hint – I'm the reason your nation is about to be destroyed. Care to guess?"

"General Gregory Alvin Rich." Steven said.

"Bravo! Truly! Anyway, I have called you to remind you that the first test of your devices will begin tomorrow, followed by the detonation of one in Johto, et cetera. Just to prove it to you, here's the countdown."

The face of General Rich was replaced with a digital readout, showing

**38:53:21**

**38:53:20**

**38:53:19**

"But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The devices should be arriving soon and I wanted to know if you decided to go to war?"

"Why do you want to bring destruction to your own country?"

"I'll take that as a 'no', then. I can't say I was expecting anything else, but a man can hope, can't he. Oh! _Really_, the HSP? You couldn't think of _anything_ better than that? Though I'll admit, I had a hard time convincing my men they were a rogue group in an attempt to overthrow the very government I myself am overthrowing, but I think it helped my argument once we were fired upon. Remember – you have four days."

The screen went blank.

Treecko, defeated, walked slowly up to the door of the Firewood Team Base, his misery evident on his face. "Doesn't Alakazam realize that Adam would never cause any meaningful harm to Pokémon Square?" he asked aloud as he opened the door.

Immediately, he was caught with surprise. Standing before him was Adam, as well as two other humans he had never met before.

"Um…hello, Tree –" Adam began as Treecko jumped into his arms. "Treecko, calm down!" Adam said as he placed Treecko onto the ground / floor.

"Tree!"

"Here's the thing, Treecko. I can't understand a word you're saying."

"Tree?"

"That's right. Could you, you know, write what you want to say out or something? Here – I have a stick."

Treecko grabbed the stick out of Adam's hand and began to write.

**Hello! Adam! It's so good to see you! **Treecko wrote.

"Good to see you too, Treecko. Here – let me introduce you to my friends. This is Stephanie."

"Hello!"

"And this is –"

"William Henry Adams the Third, the Sinnoh region's 1,000 year old kid, at your service!" William interrupted, extending his hand.

"What?" Adam asked.

**What? **Treecko wrote.

"You can call me William."

**Right.**

Several awkward moments passed.

"Well, I'm going to hit the hay," William said.

"Yeah…me too," Stephanie added, still slightly surprised pokémon were intelligent enough to write.

Adam ignored both Stephanie and William as they set up a makeshift camp outside of the base.

\\\End of Chapter Twelve/

Closing Notes – What? You expected a long, deep, and meaningful conversation? Well think again!

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Thirteen – Laboratory

*AND*

Memories, Chapter Fourteen – Infiltration


	13. Chapter Thirteen:  Laboratory

Author's Notes – There will be no updates for the next three weeks. Actually, this was going to be uploaded after those weeks, but I figured the chapter was almost done, and finishing it up beforehand couldn't hurt.

\\\Chapter Thirteen: Laboratory/

"Morning," Stephanie said, half yawning.

"Oh. Good morning," William replied.

"Where're Adam and Treecko?" she said, looking around.

"They're inside. They've been up all night talking about their experiences within the last five years. Well, Treecko's been writing, but you get the picture."

Stephanie walked into the base. "Yeah. I do," she said. The entire floor was covered with writing, save a small corner where Adam and Treecko were sitting. Immediately, she became intrigued by what little of the conversation she could decipher. A problem soon presented itself, however, when she realized that not only did she only have one side, but several portions were crossed off. What little text she could understand read as follows:

…**to know that our team now includes over thirty members…actually, we're technically merged with another team, Team MS…Medicham and Ekans…No. Actually, Gengar died about a year ago…He sacrificed himself to save a Krabby. Real brave. Surprised me, actually…No one else has died…Oh, Alakazam? Well, since you left, he's become a self-proclaimed leader. Usually he's fine…**

After that, she gave up.

"Adam!" William said.

Adam looked up, apparently unaware anyone had entered the room. "Yes?" he asked.

"Good morning!"

"It's morning? But it was just –"

At that moment, two pokémon (a Magnemite and a Zigzagoon) came rushing into the base.

"Zig!"

"Tree? Cko Tree?"

"Zagoon! Zi – Zag?"

"Treecko!"

The Magnemite and Zigzagoon rushed over to Adam. The Zigzagoon jumped into his arms, while the Magnemite electrocuted him.

"Hey!" Adam yelled. The Magnemite and Zigzagoon's faces showed hurt expressions. "What happened, Treecko?"

**It's the Decrepit Lab – it's been overrun by humans. We knew this for a little over a day, now. But according to Zigzagoon, Magnemite detected some weird signal getting sent out into space!**

"You mean like a communication signal?"

**I don't know what that is, but if these are anything like the signals being sent between their flying machines earlier.**

"Wait – flying machines? What kind of flying machines?"

**Big black things.**

"They sound like helicopters."

**Adam, you're a human.**

"So?"

**Well, you have to go to the Lab! Convince them not to harm us!**

"I don't think these humans would listen to me."

**Well, do something!**

Adam thought for a moment. "Alright. Stephanie, William, do you want to come? Treecko and I are heading to a lab. It's possible we could be killed."

"Oh…alright," Stephanie said.

"I'll go too," William added.

"Really? Wow – I expected you to say no."

"Well, William can't die yet, and now that you're actually telling me I can, I'll bet there's no danger at all."

Rich opened his desk and grabbed a small piece of paper, along with a pen. Sitting down, he wrote a quick message.

**The Square is going to be destroyed, along with most of the surrounding area. Head to the base. From and old friend.**

Having finished his work, he folded the letter twice, and proceeded to walk outside. _I need a pokémon to deliver this. Preferably something that runs fast or that can fly._ Rich glanced around the small clearing around the Lab. _Let's see…a Nidoran? No. Ditto? No. Sentret? Not unless it evolves. How about birds? _He looked at the sky. Aside from an oddly-shaped cloud in the west and a rainbow in the east, nothing seemed out of the ordinary – it was going to be a long day.

"I see the Lab up ahead!" William yelled back to Stephanie, who was busy watching Adam, and Adam, who was busy playing with Treecko.

"Great!" Adam replied.

"Maybe we should, you know, hide behind a bush or something?" Stephanie offered.

"Good idea!" William responded. After another five minutes of searching for a suitable bush, they dove behind it, narrowly avoiding the gaze of one of Rich's men.

"Now I want this message delivered to _only _the two I designated," Rich said to his newly-caught Weavile. Rich himself did not use pokémon in battle, but was not above capturing one in a customized master ball, sending it to do his bidding, then releasing it. Thanks to a program override, Rich was able to re-use the master ball on any other pokémon he needed, so he usually carried only one on his person. "Now go!" With that, the Weavile ran, racing through the forest toward Pokémon Square.

_I wonder if I can trust those two._ Rich thought to himself. _I don't suppose they ever failed me before, but then again, who's to say they believe me? No matter – what's done is done. Besides, they deserve to be warned…_

Then, _What're you doing, Greg? Showing compassion? Or is this nepotism? I suppose it could be both…_

"Sir!" one of Rich's underlings said, pulling him back into reality.

"Yes?" Rich asked.

"You asked me to tell you when we finished breaking into the signal, sir."

"So?"

"We finished, sir."

"Oh. Excellent! Link it up with my computer, then get working on the second signal."

"Sir?"

"Oh, right! I want a direct link to Hoenn for this one as well. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir."

"Good morning, passengers," the voice over the intercom said, "this is your Captain speaking. Today, there will be a mandatory fire drill for all crewmembers at 11:30 am. Though the ship's warning sirens will be used, passengers should not be alarmed. Additionally, we will be hosting a Super Cup-style tournament on Deck Eight, beginning at noon. Weather should be clear today, though there is a slight chance of rain in the afternoon. Our current position is 35 degrees, 11 minutes north, 136 degrees, 54 minutes east, or roughly 25 nautical miles southeast of Cherrygrove City, where we will dock and allow disembarkation at around 2:00 pm. We will remain in port until 11:00 pm before proceeding onto Olivine. The current time is 11:00am, and our current cruising speed is 20 knots. Thank you, and enjoy your day on the _Anne."_

Mr. Stevenson, having just woken up, turned to his wife. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

"Have you been watching the news again?" Mr. Stevenson asked, apparently oblivious to the fact that the television in their room was running.

"Yes."

"Any news on Adam?"

"No –"

The television switched back from a commercial break. "And we're back. Officials in both the Hoenn and Orre are furious about and HSP aircraft was downed just west of Citadark Isle yesterday. Orre claims that the Hoenn is infringing on its rights as a sovereign nation, while the Hoenn says it was performing a necessary defensive measure. Curiously enough, the helicopter was downed in a satellite blind spot formed thanks to the failure of the satellite that captured the now-famous footage of the Citadark Meteor. Additionally, the unmarked helicopters that downed the HSP airplane were traveling from the same direction –"

"You shouldn't be watching this." Mr. Stevenson said as he shut the television off.

"No! Turn it back on!" Mrs. Stevenson said as she lunged for the remote, forcing the screen back on.

"…children that hacked the Mossdeep Space Center computers after stealing a Sevii Seagallop Ferry only four days ago. We now move onto our exclusive interview with Fallarbor University Professor Dwight Cosmo, here to tell us about comet J2003, now only three days away. Professor, pleasure to have you here with us…"

"See, Robert? See?" Mrs. Stevenson yelled.

"I saw. So they're west of Orre, and likely north, given the Citadark footage. Here – once we get to Olivine, we'll get a plane ticket to the Orre, then charter a boat, or a helicopter, or even a hot air balloon. Anything that will get us to Adam."

"Right."

"I'll go speak to the captain about disembarking early. I hope you'll finally get over this and enjoy your time on the ship? Our son is safe – and alive!"

\\\End of Chapter Thirteen/

Closing Notes – I've decided that, as they will likely give too much of the plot away, I will stop showing the chapter titles from upcoming chapters, so you won't get to see any new ones. Darn.

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Fourteen – Infiltration


	14. Chapter Fourteen:  Infiltration

Author's Notes – I'm back! Not much else to say…oh well.

\\\Chapter Fourteen: Infiltration/

"I've got a plan," William said.

"Let's here it," the other two children replied, accompanied by voices of agreement from the three pokémon and a **Good.** from Treecko.

"Okay. For some reason, they leave that one side door unguarded. At first, I thought it was because some security camera was set up, but after watching it for half an hour I couldn't find any."

"So? It's probably locked…" Adam said.

"I doubt it – I saw someone walk out of it when we first got here, then walk back in without doing anything. Plus, do you see any sort of locking mechanism on that door?"

"No, I don't."

"Good! Let's go!"

"Wait!" Stephanie said. "There could be men on the _other _side of the door."

"We'll have to take that risk," William responded.

"I'm good with this," Adam added, "but what about the pokémon? Treecko," he turned to his green friend, "there probably won't be anything to write with, so I won't be able to understand you when we're in there. You still want to come?"

Adam watched as the gecko wrote the word **Yes.** on the ground.

"And you?" he turned to the other two pokémon, who promptly ran away into the forest. "I guess not. Well, then, let's go!" he said as they began the not-surprisingly simple process of sneaking into an unlocked door.

"Ye who seek evolution, welcome to the Luminous Cave," a mysterious voice called out.

_Finally._ thought Pikachu.

"Do you wish to evolve?"

"Yes!"

"Do you have the Thunderstone?"

"Of course!" Pikachu shouted as it reached for its most treasured possession, a rare thunderstone it found on a particularly difficult (B-rank) rescue mission.

"The process will begin when you are ready."

_Just a few more moments and I'll be a Raichu! Now, nothing can stop me! Mother would be so pr – what's that?_ The Pikachu noticed a bizarre object in the back corner of the cave. _Could it be the work of those humans who dropped fire on us? I have to get back to Alakazam!_

The Pikachu bolted out of the save, pausing only to secure its thunderstone safely inside its scarf.

Adam, William, Stephanie, and the pokémon were beginning to think their plan was failing. After trying nearly twenty doors (none of which were locked), the results of their search were almost negligible: seven lead to broom closets, five to deserted offices, two to bathrooms, and the rest to rooms that were left entirely empty.

"Well, this is the last door," Adam said.

"What do we do if this doesn't go anywhere?" William asked.

"We'll have to think of something else," Stephanie replied.

Adam pulled on the handle, only to find he was unable to open the door. "That's funny," he commented, "It's locked!"

"Look at that!" Stephanie blurted out (accompanied by a "Tree!" from Treecko).

"Shhhhhh! Were not supposed to be here, remember?" William said.

"Sorry. Look at that." she whispered in reply ("Tree.")

"What?" Adam asked.

"That panel on the wall," She said as she pointed to a lit-up screen next to the wall, accompanied by a standard QWERTY keyboard. A single line of red text lit up the panel:

**Gen. Gregory A. Rich Office – Password Required**

"Password? We need a password?" Adam asked.

"Well, at least it looks promising." Stephanie replied.

"How? We can't break into an office – I doubt whoever this 'General' guy is would make something stupid like those guys at the Mossdeep Space Center did."

"What guys at the Mossdeep Space Center?" William asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you – we broke into the Hoenn government computers using the main computer at the Mossdeep Space Center. The password was 'Space'," Adam said.

"Right…well, why don't you try something obvious like you did last time? I mean, what's the worst that can happen if we get it wrong?" William responded.

"We could – oh, never mind," Adam said as he made his way to the panel. "Let me see…what would be good…'Rich? No – too obvious. How about 'General? Not enough room –"

"Tree?" Treecko asked, which Adam assumed (correctly) to mean something along the lines of "'General' is too short?"

"Yeah – the password only has six spaces. 'QWERTY' would work, but everyone uses that –"

"Maybe he wants us to think something too long wouldn't work, so we overlook it," William offered.

"What do you mean?"

"Try entering 'I am rich,' but with no spaces, and stop at the 'C'."

"Allright…I –"

The panel flashed up a message as soon as he entered the first letter:

**Password incorrect.**

"Okay, so it tells me when I get a letter wrong. This is good. Now for 'Gregory'. G…R –"

**Password incorrect. You have one more attempt before alarm will sound.**

"Well, this is great!" Adam said.

"Try 'General' – it fits everything so far!" Stephanie offered.

"You sure?"

"Can you think of anything else?"

"Fair enough. G…E…Hey! I think it's working! N…E –"

A large whirling noise, accompanied by many flashing red lights (as well as another 'Password incorrect' message) appeared to imply that Adam had gotten the password wrong. This was confirmed when four armed guards came racing down the hallway, grabbing Adam, Stephanie, William, and Treecko. Shortly before they rounded the corner, Adam glimpsed another man, dressed differently from the rest, entering into Rich's office. Despite his best attempt to spy the last three letters of the password, Rich blocked his view of all but the last one.

It was an 'R'.

"Alakazam!" Pikachu shouted as it ran toward Pokémon Square.

_What is it?_ Alakazam asked, using his mind, no less.

"There's something strange inside the Luminous Cave!"

_Let me see…_Alakazam teleported himself directly into the Luminous Cave. In addition to the usual decorations that somehow allowed pokémon to evolve, a large black container was positioned inside the room, prompting Alakazam's attention. _That's strange. _Alakazam thought._ It's almost like it was teleported in here…could Adam have done this? Oh well, better teleport it out._

The teleport did not work. Nor did it work the second time, nor the third. _I have to tell Whiscash! This thing, whatever it is, must be protected somehow! But no pokémon could ever make this, and how could any human have teleport-proofed a machine?_ Alakazam thought. Then, he came to a striking conclusion: _Adam. It must have been! Who else was around pokémon long enough to learn our secrets?_

With that, Alakazam began to leave. He was only halfway through teleportation, a mere millisecond of time, when he suddenly aborted, sending waves of psychic energy throughout the cavern. _What's that red light?_ he wondered, noticing an unusual red glow reflecting off the back wall that he must have missed on his initial inspection. _Could it be coming from that thing? Perhaps I should check it out…_

"Mr. President!" a technician said as he worked on upgrading President Stone's computer protection software.

"Yes?" Steven Stone asked.

"Some weird window just appeared onscreen."

"_What?"_ asked Steven (as well as the various members of his assembled cabinet) as Rich's voice began to emanate from the computer speakers.

"Mr. President? Where are you?" he asked. Steven quickly raced back to his computer. "Ah – there you are. It's such a pleasure to be speaking to you again."

"What do you want, Rich?"

"I'm only here to inform you that our first full-scale test of the device is about to go underway."

"Hold up a second – you just said 'first full-scale test', and if I remember correctly, you said something similar last time, too. You mean you're holding my nation hostage with something that may not even work?"

"Our miniature-scale tests all returned the same results, while at the same time our computer simulations seemed to show us that all of our predictions were correct. Nevertheless, I believe the time has come to demonstrate the power of such devices to the world. I must be off – I have to give the same message to the leader of Johto, followed by some prisoners to attend to. However, for your convenience, I will leave the countdown on this window, which will be replaced by a camera at a reasonably safe distance once the timer hits zero. Good day."

General Rich left. Once he did, a powerful-looking Alakazam appeared onscreen, confusing the President until it teleported away, and the readout became visible. The numbers read

**00:05:01**

**00:05:00**

**00:04:59**

**00:04:58**

\\\End of Chapter Fourteen/

Closing Notes – Five minutes and counting…

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Fifteen


	15. Chapter Fifteen:  Evacuation

Author's Notes – Sorry for the delay. Some of you may have noticed that I moved the "I do not own pokémon" disclaimer to chapter one, though no other changes have been made. Please remember that chapters have many things going on at once, so it may take you longer to read the chapter from your perspective than from the characters'. Remember this. Also, (spoilers…kind of) I have done something…unusual… (read: rather stupid) with the name of at least one character, though I won't say how many. Once one figures it out (assuming one hasn't already), it will be spoiler-like, but that spoiler will no longer apply if you read this chapter. I thought you should all know that, and if you haven't found it yet, start looking.

\\\Chapter Fifteen: Evacuation/

"Now you three stay in here," the guard said as he tossed the three children (plus Treecko) into a plain, all-white room. The only objects in the room were a desk, a computer, and two chairs.

"Well, that went well," Adam said. "I don't usually study the history of secret laboratory break-ins, but we definitely rank in the bottom five."

"Come on, it wasn't that bad," William tried to point out.

"Sure it was – we were captured because we couldn't guess a _six-digit _computer password. That's pretty bad."

"Hey, look over here," Stephanie said. By now, she had left Adam and William to sort out how pitiful their attempt was and had begun to examine the chairs and desk. "These chairs have our names on them."

"What?" the two boys asked at the same time.

"This chair has 'Stephanie' written on it, and this one has 'Adam'."

Adam and William went over for a closer look. Sure enough, the chairs had the children's names written in black ink on the back. "Do you think they were expecting us?" Adam asked.

"No, I think they just chose to write down random names on chairs incase someone broke in. _Of_ _course they were expecting us!"_

"Then how come there isn't a chair for me?" William asked.

"You've been off-the-radar for over nine-hundred years. We stole a highly-expensive government vehicle less than a week ago. Of the two, which person or group do you think had a greater chance of being discovered?"

"Alright, you got me there. But why even make the chairs? They can't honestly expect you two to be stupid enough to – what are you doing?" William exclaimed as Adam began to sit down.

"What?"

"That chair's probably rigged!"

"Do you have another plan?"

"Sure – we could try using the computer."

"Tried that. It didn't turn on."

"Then how about the door?"

"Do you see a door in this room?"

Indeed the door had seemingly vanished. Though neither Adam nor William knew it, the door (which was still present) had less than one hundredth of an inch of clearance between it and the wall, making it practically invisible to anyone observing from the inside.

"Fair enough. But still, that chair will probably –"

Adam sat down in his chair. Immediately, two metal rings shot out from the arm rests and held him in place as two more appeared around his ankles.

"– do that."

Almost instantaneously, the computer screen jumped to life, displaying a typical live television streaming window. Inside this window was a man Adam could only assume to be General Gregory Alvin Rich.

"Hello, Adam," Rich said. "Such a pleasure to be talking to you again."

"Alakazam! Alakazam!"

Ekans and Medicham ran (well…Ekans slithered, but that is not important) straight through pokémon square, sharply turned northward, and bolted into the Whiscash Pond, Alakazam's preferred location of meditation. Much to their surprise, they found Alakazam not in his usual state of peaceful meditation, but rather speaking to a large group of pokémon next to the entrance to Luminous Cave.

"Alakazam!"

_Yes? Can't you two see I'm busy? Something strange has appeared in Luminous Cave, and I'm consulting everyone for information._

"This is far more important!" Medicham said as she thrust a rather battered looking sheet of paper toward Alakazam, who blasted it away with psychic energy.

_I'll look at it later. Now, please leave me, or, if you have information –"_

"Pokémon Square is going to be destroyed!"

This caught Alakazam's attention. _What?_

"Here," Medicham said as she handed the paper to Alakazam. "Read this."

_Let me see…"The Square is going to be destroyed…"_ Alakazam's expression turned from one of annoyance to one of action extremely quickly. _Alright. I will address the crowd at once._

_Listen! From the information I gathered so far, the device appears to be counting down to some point in time not three minutes from now, and may be related to a report that the Square is going to be attacked by humans again._ The assorted pokémon cried out in terror. Medicham and Ekans had no idea where this 'humans attacking' business came from, but if the attack was half as severe as the last one, it was worth taking action for. _Therefore, we are going to evacuate. The hills should be far enough. I will teleport everyone three at a time. With luck, it will only take a minute. After the humans discover they have not destroyed us, they will be vulnerable to attack, and that is our time to strike! Now let us begin._

Alakazam teleported away with the Pikachu that first found the device, as well as two Pichu that appeared to be its siblings. Less than one second later, a flash of light shot up into the sky from a location beyond a hill slightly over half a mile away from the Square, signaling Alakazam's return for more pokémon. This time, it would be Team Rumblerock that left.

Ekans and Medicham, however, were by the Pond during the evacuation. Instead, they had gathered up the assorted members of their team and fled in the opposite direction, beginning the ten-mile trek toward their base.

"I'm sorry," Adam began, "but I don't believe we've met."

"You don't even know who I am? I'm Gregory Alvin Rich! Surely you've heard of me? Or perhaps you know me by my old name, Lee Daniel Rich?"

Adam did not recognize the name, though William did. "Daniel Rich? _The _Daniel Rich of the Hammer of Regirock Project?"

"Ah, so at least _someone's _heard of me. By the way, who are you?"

"William."

"No last name?"

"No, just 'William'."

"Fine," Rich said grumbling. "Stephanie!" he said with excitement as he turned his attention to Stephanie, "I don't believe we've met like I've met with Adam, though it really is a joy to see you. Glad to see you've decided to lead a life of high crime rather than following in your sister's footsteps. Very original."

"I haven't –" Stephanie began to protest.

"And how could I forget Treecko? You look exactly the same!"

"Tree?"

"Haven't learned human language yet? Ah well."

"Rich, why are you holding us captive here?" Adam asked as he attempted to move his hands.

"Right. To be perfectly honest, I'm fairly sorry about all of this. Rest assured that you'll be released in a few days. Heck, I may release you tomorrow, if my plans work out."

"And those plans are…?"

"All in good time, my old friend. All in good time. By the way, you'll be released from that chair when this countdown expires," Rich said as a countdown appeared onscreen, signaling a minute and fifteen seconds remaining.

"Wait! You keep calling me your 'old friend', but I've never met you!"

Rich had a poorly-done mock sadness in his eyes. "You don't remember me, do you? Can't possibly take a guess as to where we've met before?"

Adam did not answer this question. The countdown read slightly over a minute.

"Oh well. I'll tell you what. I'll come back every hour for the next three hours. If you can tell me who I am, I'll let you go. Heck, to help you, I'll even give you this." A small text window appeared onscreen.

"What is it?" Stephanie asked.

"This is a password window, with an identical password to the one that allows you to enter my office. If you guess correctly, you'll have access to the entire mainframe, save my own personal files. See? I'm not really that evil."

Neither Adam nor William (nor Stephanie nor Treecko) wanted to enter a debate as to how evil Rich was, so they did not respond.

"If you want a hint, I used my old name as the password. I'll see you in an hour," Rich said as he left the screen, which now only displayed the countdown and the password window.

The children plus Treecko sat in silence for a second, followed by William speaking: "Do you think we should try 'G-E-N-L-E-E'? It would be his old name."

"No. I think the last letter is an 'R', judging by what I saw as they were capturing us," Adam responded. "Plus, something doesn't seem right about all this, and I don't mean our capture. Those signals into and from space, combined with this countdown, make me fell bad."

"Well, can it really hurt to enter a password?"

"No, I suppose not."

William tried entering the password. Although it did not beep upon reaching any particular letter, it once again did not work. The countdown crossed the minute mark.

_That's everyone._ Alakazam thought. _And with a minute to spare, too._ He now refocused his thoughts on the crowd. _Alright! We're going to climb this hill, or fly up this hill, or whatever and get as far away from the Square as we can. Though make sure it's still in your sights, so we know when to attack._

The pokémon began to climb the hill, some wondering why they did not merely teleport to the top. In reality (though they did not know it), it would have been impossible – teleportation requires psychic energy, and Alakazam was nearly drained of it. Going up as well as going out would have caused him to faint.

"The timer should be expiring soon," Ekans said, stopping to catch its breath about as far from the Pond as Alakazam and the others were, but in the opposite direction. The majority of his and Medicham's team had decided to leave with Alakazam, leaving only a Meditite and two Zubat with the leaders.

"What do you think will happen?" Zubat asked.

"It'll probably be some sort of signal for the humans to start attacking. They'll likely come in more of those black flying things and drop fire onto the Square. Then, Alakazam and the others will attack. Either way, we'll be safest at the Base."

They continued moving, though slower this time.

President Steven Stone remained looking at the monitor as the numbers concluded their final march toward oblivion.

**00:01:00**

**00:00:59**

**00:00:58**

"There's always the chance it won't work, Mr. President," someone said.

"Now is not the time to be optimistic," the President replied.

**00:00:55**

**00:00:54**

**00:00:53**

"So, anyone else have any ideas?" William asked.

"He said he used his old name…could he have meant his initials? It fits the four letters Adam thinks we know." Stephanie asked.

"Let's find out. G-E-N-L-D-R."

The password was not accepted. None of the three children had any idea what the password could possibly be, nor could Adam determine how he would have met Rich before. Fortunately, there was a pokémon in the room.

"Tree! Treecko Tree!" Treecko began to shout.

"What is it, Treecko?" William asked.

"Tree!"

"I think he wants to input the password," Adam said. "Go ahead!"

Treecko climbed up Adam's chair, jumped off Adam's head, and landed next to the computer, where he began to type rapidly:

**G-E-N-G-A-R**

The password was accepted.

Far back in Luminous Cave, the device planted by Rich and his minions continued its countdown.

**00:00:02**

**00:00:01**

**00:00:00**

\\\End of Chapter Fifteen/

Closing Notes – For the record, Lee Daniel Rich is not a reference to any real-world general. That is all.

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Sixteen


	16. Chapter Sixteen:  Inferno

Author's Notes – Fixed a minor continuity error with chapter thirteen. Also, one reader (EkaSwede) pointed a line-breaking error to me. Hopefully, a new break I'm using in this chapter will fix it (if it does, I'll go back and fix all other chapters with this error). Also, I've decided I will _not _remove the Author's Notes from previous chapters after I finish writing them, as I've begun to notice they show the progression of the creation of this story. However, the re-write of the beginning of Memoriam will still come as promised. Also, as an added bonus, this story will be over the original predicted length of seventeen chapters, thanks to me splitting one chapter into two.

\\\Chapter Sixteen: Inferno/

The first pokémon to notice the explosion were also the first victims, blinded by an incredible flash of light that shined several thousand times brighter than the sun when they turned to observe what would happen to their town, along with thousands of other pokémon within a ten-mile radius, all of them ignorant as to what had happened

Following the sunburst, some of the pokémon that were not blinded turned around to see what had caused the sudden light, thus suffering the same fate, while the remaining pokémon either ran or flew as fast as they could away from the explosion. Within one second all but ten of the remaining grounded pokémon had been incinerated by a sudden wave of heat. Approximately two seconds after this, the entirety of the flying pokémon were sent shooting out from the blast site as they were hit by a gust of wind of strength not before witnessed outside of the Kanto region.

Alakazam, who had put up a protective shield around himself and three nearby Cleffa, was the next pokémon to be overcome by the explosion at about the same time the light began to fade, his mind broken by the amount of energy needed to hold the shield up against the approaching wall of fire, along with the three Cleffa who were incinerated in the blast.

One of the two pokémon that survived the initial ten seconds was Persian, though he was missing all of the fur from his body, which was covered entirely in third-degree burns. He, too, would not see the light of the next day, as a large piece of debris struck him in the head. His last sights were of the lone survivor, a Pidgeot that had managed to use supersonic flight to overtake both the wind and the explosion, and a large, mushroom-shaped cloud filling the sky.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"So, that's it," President Stone said. "If you'll excuse me, gentlemen," he continued as he began to leave his own office, "I have a speech to write."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Gengar!" Adam exclaimed, not noticing the bonds holding him to his chair release.

"I've heard that name before," Stephanie mentioned.

"Of course you have – it's a pokémon. Number 90-something," William replied.

"No, I don't mean that. Treecko had written it on the ground in the base."

"Tree," Treecko said.

"What Treecko means is," Adam said, "Gengar was a pokémon we ran into when I was still a pokémon. It headed a rival rescue team, Team Meanies, that – "

"Meanies? _Meanies_?" Stephanie interjected as she began to laugh.

"Yes, Meanies. Gengar headed Team Meanies. As I was saying, we first met Gengar and his team as they were trying to extort money out of some kid's parents…or something like that. In all honesty, that part is a bit of a blur, and didn't really seem that important at the time. Either way, we developed a deep rivalry."

"So?"

"Well, he eventually found out I was a human-turned-pokémon, though I bet he knew about this long before. He blamed the Ninetales Curse on me, and with it, a large number of natural disasters."

"How?"

"Turns out, pokémon are almost as gullible as humans. Now come on, Rich said we had access to the computers, let's try to get out of here."

**{-/|!|\-}**

The Pueltown Centre's Johto Government Branch was bustling with activity, as communication with the remaining regions had been established. The Johto Prime Minister was in a side room giving a speech.

"A major step toward Almia-Sinnoh peace was achieved today," he was saying, "as a permanent border has been agreed upon by both nations, set directly south of Twinleaf Town. I hope all the people of our nation will join these two in –"

One of the Minister's aids called for the cameras to stop rolling. Thankfully, the speech was not being delivered live. "Minister, we just received word that a major nuclear threat has been issued against Johto."

"What? When was this?"

"Several days ago, sir, though communication had been impossible until today."

"How major of a threat are we talking about?"

"A device was just tested in an as-yet-unnamed portion of land west of Orre."

"Get me to the airplane. I want to return to Johto within the hour."

"Yes, sir."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Hey guys, I'm in," William said.

"Can you unlock the door?" both Adam and Stephanie asked.

"Let me see…no. Though I do have access to all the records from this base," William said as he clicked on an icon. Immediately, the screen was filled with text, covered in names of different files.

"What do all these mean?" Stephanie asked.

"I'm working on it!" William replied as he began to scroll through the files. "Alright. We have some geographical reports about the location of the lab, several personnel files, something about a new pokémon discovered in Guyana, and – what's this?" He clicked on a file marked only as "Regirock – U235/238. TS-Alpha".

"What does it say?" Adam asked.

"Ahem. 'The Effects of a Chain Reaction of Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 and Possibilities of Weaponization.'" William read.

"Well, that doesn't sound good."

"No, it doesn't," William replied as he began to skim through the report. "'…the chain reaction could result in an explosion equivalent of several thousand to over one million tons of TNT…micro-scale tests appear to be within predicted range of results…weaponization is possible and being undertaken as part of the Hammer of Regirock."

"That…really doesn't sound good."

"'…test is scheduled for Friday, November 23, 1263 N.C. at 7:30 AM Ever-Grande Standard Time. Other tests to be determined,'" William finished. "What day is today."

"Let me see…" Stephanie asked as she checked the time on her Pokénav. "Friday, November 23. Good God."

"Does that thing of yours have a watch?" Adam asked.

"Yes. It's…oh, no."

"What?"

"7:32 AM."

"So it already went off?"

"It would appear so."

Treecko, who had been listening in on the entire conversation, once again jumped onto the keyboard and selected another file, this one labeled "Iron Stone Protocol".

William once again read the file, though this one was rather short: "Iron Stone Protocol. In the event that the Hoenn region is compromised, Operation Iron Stone will be enforced, and war should be waged against the Hoenn region as would be waged on any other, until the region is either destroyed or retaken."

"So…what? Hoenn's going to attack itself? That doesn't seem like a smart move."

"The file dates from shortly after the Citadark Explosion. They probably thought they would be attacked."

"That still doesn't explain anything. Plus, where was the test of the explosion."

"Well, for that, we'll probably have to look inside the geography files," William said, once again clicking on a file, which he began to read. Slowly, an expression of concern, sadness, and then anger crossed his face.

"What is it?" Stephanie asked as she looked at the screen, soon overcome by the same emotions.

"What?" Adam asked. Neither responded. "What?"

"Adam…"

"What could possibly be the matter?"

"The test…it was at…well…"

"What?"

"Pokémon Square."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"What do you mean, we can't leave Olivine?" Mrs. Stevenson asked.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but all air traffic throughout the Johto region has been grounded, and it looks to be the same way for Orre."

"What could possibly prompt them to ground all air traffic?"

"The order came out less than five minutes ago, though no explanation was given."

Mrs. Stevenson, defeated, walked back toward her husband, currently watching a news report about how the Almia and Sinnoh regions had broken the border agreement they made just two days earlier and begun to attack each other again.

\\\End of Chapter Sixteen/

Closing Notes – None today.

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Seventeen


	17. Chapter Seventeen:  Options

Author's Notes – After much delay, here's the seventeenth chapter! Also, quit reading these author's notes unless you want spoilers (nor really): I do not own The Princess Bride. If you haven't ever heard of it, this won't really affect you, and even if you have, it won't do much. Just trying to be safe.

\\Chapter Seventeen: Options/

Most people, when placed in Adam's situation, would have vomited. Unlike most people, however, Adam merely lost consciousness.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Sir," President Stone's Minister of Defense began.

"Yes?"

"We just received word – at exactly twelve o'clock this morning, an unmarked and unmanned naval vessel crashed into the coast of Ever Grande City. The devices were onboard."

"Always one step ahead of us," the President muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Right," President Stone said as he ignored the Defense Minister's request. "All of you keep working. My speech is scheduled for two hours. If any of you have any solutions by then, it would really help our nation. That will be all."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Adam? Adam? Can you hear me, Adam?"

"Yes, yes," Adam said as he slowly came-to. At least, he thought he was coming-to, until he opened his eyes. Instead of seeing the all-white walls of the containment room, he was instead greeted with a smattering of flashing colors in a formless space, identical to the dream he had days earlier.

"I see you're awake. Well…almost," said a figure as it appeared out of a flash of light and took the form of Gardevoir.

"Are you the same thing from my dream two days ago?"

"Yes."

At this point, Adam attempted to hit the Gardevoir in the face. Unfortunately, creatures with teleportation abilities are fairly hard to hit in the face, so he ended up waving his hand through the air.

"You won't be able to hit me."

"Who _are _you? And why didn't you help me yesterday? Now everyone in pokémon square is dead!"

"I will answer your questions in reverse order. I didn't help you yesterday because you did not sleep, at least not as long as is necessary to contact you. As for who I am, I am a Gardevoir."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Very well, I will elaborate. I first met General Gregory Alvin Rich, then known as Daniel Rich, when he chose me to begin his pokémon journey with him. He was slightly older than most beginning trainers, though this only aided his strategic skills. Together, we traveled throughout the Hoenn, finally participating the Hoenn League after several years of training. We did not make it through round one. After this, we headed to the Kanto to train and participate in the league there, though we did not even qualify.

Failing in our mission, Rich – now nearly eighteen – and I returned to the Hoenn. I do not know what happened next, as he put me into a pokéball for several years. Once I was released, I found Rich had managed to apply to the Hoenn Service of Protection, train, prove himself to be a promising recruit, and return to the Kanto as a spy, where he remained for several years, only releasing me four additional times.

Upon returning with everything he needed to know to begin a nuclear weapons program in the Hoenn, he was chosen to head up the Hammer of Regirock Project, and we journeyed together to the unnamed region where you are currently. Six months into the project, Rich began to search for a mountainous area to test one of the devices in. Secretly, I opposed it, though my species are known for being both extensively loyal and protective. Eventually, we stumbled upon a cave high in a mountain, which I later learned was called Mt. Freeze."

"And…?" Adam asked.

"There we met Ninetales, and I assume you know the story from here. Rich pulled the Ninetales's tail in an attempt to prove his superstitious second-in-command wrong, and wound up getting himself cursed to die."

"He's obviously not dead."

"No, he isn't. I said earlier that my species are very loyal and protective, even willing to die for our trainers, no matter how disloyal they are to us. In his final moments, he released me from my pokéball, and I took the curse for him."

"So, are you dead?"

"Mostly."

"What does that mean?"

"The details aren't important, though it technically means I'm still alive, at least enough to contact others through their dreams. I wandered aimlessly from dream to dream, attempting to learn what little I could of Rich, though no pokémon seemed to know. And then, months later, I came to you, where I learned what Rich had become."

"And do you know why he became a Gengar?"

"Yes, I do. You see, I died for Gengar, and when –"

At this moment, Adam felt a sudden burst of pain from his left arm as the dream faded into nothingness.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Sir, we may have identified Rich's Johto region target," the Hoenn Defense Minister said, only fifteen minutes before the speech was scheduled to begin. He had spent the past hour-plus with multiple teams of people working to create a solution to the ever-deepening crisis.

"How?" the President responded.

"We identified a large string of data traveling between Rich's lab and a location only a few miles outside of Cherrygrove City. We have alerted the Johto government, and they have dispatched a portion of their military to inspect it."

"Is there any chance of doing something similar in Hoenn?"

"We're working on it, sir, but there doesn't seem to be much hope. We already know the targets, so Rich'll probably be far more cautious about giving away the devices' exact locations."

"I see. Very well."

"Before I go, sir, there is another thing. We may have come up with a solution to our problem, but I don't think you're going to like it…"

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Why did you wake me up?" Adam yelled as he…woke up, only to notice immense pain coming from his arm. "And what happened to my arm?"

"You passed out, and broke your arm as you fell," Stephanie replied. "We tried to wake you, though nothing worked. Fortunately, you rolled over onto the arm. I guess the pain woke you up. Now, come on, get up."

"Get up? My arm's broken!" Adam said, pointing to his arm to increase the effect, with Treecko joining in. Sadly, it did not convince Stephanie.

"We have to go, now."

"But – where are we even going?"

"We're escaping," William said, joining in. "While you were out, I managed to unlock the door and discover the way onto the roof. There are several helicopters there waiting for us."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Fellow citizens of the Hoenn and the world," the President began, "I come to you here tonight to alert you of some disturbing news. Our nation's very existence has been threatened. Not by our enemies from the Kanto, but from terrorists. These terrorists have threatened to annihilate several of our cities and then one entire half of our nation, unless we give into their demands and go to war with the Kanto. We will not."

Around the world, screams could be heard throughout most major cities. Some people scrambled to pack their belongings and head to bomb shelters as others were simply glued to their television screens. A few were wandering about the various routes of Hoenn (and the other regions) and were listening to the message be delivered on a Pokénav, usually surrounded by six pokémon.

**{-/|!|\-}**

William, Stephanie, Treecko, and Adam (the last one grabbing his arm) burst through the door onto the roof, immediately running toward the nearest of five black helicopters, entirely oblivious to the man already seated inside the cockpit until they were inside.

"Hello," General Rich began. "It's such a pleasure you could join me. Though I'm afraid this is a private flight," he added as he slowly removed a pistol from his belt. "Though before you go, let me tell you about myself."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"However, there is some good news," the President continued. "We know the location of their base of operations, and, though they managed to defeat a small group of planes dispatched to remove the threat earlier, it is highly unlikely they will defeat a stronger force. Likewise, they have delivered to us several nuclear bombs, which they claimed were for our 'War with Kanto', though these are set to automatically detonate if we do not use them within a specific amount of time.

"Oddly enough, we will give in to their demand to go to war. However, we will not be going to war with Kanto – we will be going to war with the terrorists. Ten minutes ago, I ordered one half of the Hoenn Air Force, combined with backup from the Navy and Army, to deliver a full nuclear strike on their base of operations. I ask you to all join my in prayer for the safety and success of their mission."

As the president began to pray, fifty military aircraft pierced the otherwise empty skies of Hoenn and headed northwest to their destination…

\\\End of Chapter Seventeen/

Closing Notes – For the record, Hoenn has a fairly small air force.

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Eighteen


	18. Chapter Eighteen:  Collision

Author's Notes – Begin epic music It's time…for Memories of Friends, Chapter Eighteen! Yay! End epic music.

\\Chapter Eighteen: Collision/

"As I'm sure you already know, my name is General Gregory Alvin Rich," Rich began. "You also probably know that I became a Gengar. Likewise, I know a lot of things about you all. Adam, you currently live in the Sevii Islands. Until you turned nine, you were fixed on becoming a pokémon trainer, like most other children.

"That all changed once you turned nine. After an unfortunate incident in which a pokémon died, you found you had been transformed into one yourself. You soon met Treecko, formed the rescue team Firewood, and began to live a pokémon life. You had several encounters with the rescue team Meanies –"

Stephanie and William chuckled at this point, though a wave of the gun brought quick silence.

"– lead by myself. My team soon managed to convince the pokémon you met that it was your becoming a human and taking the Ninetales' Curse that was causing numerous natural disasters. In fact I was the one who had taken the Curse, though I later managed to remove most of the effects. Am I correct so far?"

Adam nodded. It was Stephanie, however, who spoke first. "Mr. Rich –"

"General!"

"Sorry. _General _Rich, you've only managed to tell us what we already know," she continued, choosing her words with great care, "but you said you know a lot about all of us. Can you tell us about –"

"Yourselves? Certainly. Your name is Stephanie Selphy, daughter of Smith and Eleanor Selphy and sister of Juliet Selphy, the Chrono Island Gym Leader. Your dream in life is to be the first trainer to defeat all four regional champions.

"Now for William. I'll admit, I had never even heard of you until about an hour ago, though I think you'll find some last minute research adequate. Your full name is William Henry Adams the Third, Your parents were William Henry Adams the Second and Felicia Persephone Adams, your sister, Amelia Rose Adams. You sailed on the _Uxie, _but were abandoned during the expedition after you achieved immortality and your companions thought you had been cursed or something. Oddly enough, they were correct. After many years of wandering through the unnamed region, you returned to your native Sinnoh to train pokémon, though you soon found they would always die before you, so you stopped. Eventually, you began searching for legendary pokémon, even managing to find the spirit for which the ship you sailed on is named. Your only surviving relatives are an old woman who sells cookies atop Mount Chimney and a family of sailors in Canalave City."

**{-/|!|\-}**

The large Hoenn Air Force unit was at that moment darting across the Gateon skies at speeds approaching supersonic, though unable to actually break the sound barrier due to the limitations of some aircraft. Inside the cockpit of a large bomber plane, Major Don Smith noticed a small change on a satellite radar system. A weather satellite that was been temporarily being used by the Hoenn Military to guide the strike force had finally determined the exact location of the lab, located 330 miles away. A minor course adjustment would put the bomber and the rest of the aircraft directly over the lab within thirty minutes.

**{-/|!|\-}**

William was stunned. For several moments, he could not speak. Eventually, he managed to say what was supposed to sound like, "How could you figure all this out?"

"Well it was simple, really. After my conversation with Adam and the destruction of Pokémon Square –"

Adam and Treecko shouted, but were quickly hushed by Stephanie

"– I began to search through numerous historical websites for a person by the name of William who would be in this area about one thousand years ago, based on your appearance. A stretch, I know, but I had some spare time. Naturally, I found nothing, as the region was not discovered until about ten years ago. After expanding my search to include the Orre, I found the _Uxie_ and her ill-fated crew. I reasoned that this region must have been the 'uncharted island' the crew discovered, and not Citadark Isle, and since no one by the name of William was on the Sinjoh Ruins wall, where every member of the _Uxie_ crew carved their name after building the temple, I figured you must have been left behind. Immortality is the only logical reason you would still be alive."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"ETA fifteen minutes," said one of the pilots.

"Roger that," said another.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"But why would you use an atomic weapon on Pokémon Square?" Adam asked.

"I'm so happy you asked that question," Rich replied. "Truth be told, I wasn't planning on starting this for several years. Too many details that needed to be addressed. To occupy the time, I was competing in the coliseums in Orre. That's when I learned you survived.

"I'll confess, I was skeptical at first. For years I had suspected you were still alive, though all the evidence pointed to the contrary. You weren't in the records of any league I had access to, and since you weren't included in the Kanto's latest military draft, you had vanished. Not becoming a trainer hadn't crossed my mind. Though once I realized you were alive, I wanted to take action. _Revenge, _if you will.

"At first, I simply wanted to kill you. Now, listen to what I am about to tell you. If there is one thing you must understand, it is this: as difficult as it may seem, death is not the greatest punishment for all people. Once I remembered how you sacrificed yourself to stop the meteor, I realized I would need something else. Fortunately, that was easy to do. You see, to finally defeat you, I'd have to kill not you, but everyone you know. And that ties in with my plans for world domination perfectly."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"ETA seven minutes."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"But why would you use an atomic weapon on Pokémon Square?" Adam asked.

"I'm so happy you asked that question," Rich replied. "Truth be told, I wasn't planning on starting this for several years. Too many details that needed to be addressed. To occupy the time, I was competing in the coliseums in Orre. That's when I learned you survived.

"True, I was skeptical at first. For years I had suspected you were still alive, though all the evidence pointed to the contrary. You weren't in the records of any league I had access to, and since you weren't included in the Kanto's latest military draft, you had vanished. Not becoming a trainer hadn't crossed my mind. Though once I realized you were alive, I wanted to take action. _Revenge, _if you will.

"At first, I simply wanted to kill you. Now, listen to what I am about to tell you. If there is one thing you must understand, it is this: as difficult as it may seem, death is not the greatest punishment for all people. Once I remembered how you sacrificed yourself to stop the meteor, I realized I would need something else. Fortunately, that was easy to do. You see, to finally defeat you, I'd have to kill not you, but everyone you know. So I decided to use several atomic weapons on numerous targets, the first two geared around people you know. And that ties in with my plans for world domination perfectly."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"ETA one minute."

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Now, have I answered all your questions?" Rich asked. A red dot appeared on a radar screen, though Rich did not notice. Neither did Adam, Stephanie, nor William, though Treecko did. "Good," Rich continued. "Now, if you all value your lives, get out." He pointed the gun toward one of the doors (if they could be called that) of the helicopter.

For a moment, the three children were confused. "You're…not going to kill us?" Adam asked.

"Of course not. What would that accomplish? Now get out." Several more dots appeared on the screen as the four gradually left the helicopter. Upon leaving, Rich started the engines and the helicopter lifted off, creating gusts of wind that knocked William and Treecko both to the ground. Rich arced the helicopter around and flew straight into a cloud.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Sir, I'm picking something up on radar," one man said.

"What is it?" asked another man, several ranks above the first.

"It appears to be a helicopter, sir, heading away from us. Shall I – Wait. Never mind. It's gone."

"What do you mean 'gone'?"

"Vanished right off the radar, sir."

"How?"

"I'm…not sure. Do you want us to dispatch jets to search its last known location?"

The second man thought for a moment. "No," he said. "The bomb drops in 30 seconds. If Rich is attempting a last-minute escape, he'll have to re-fuel, and the only way he can make it to any place where re-fueling is possible is fly straight through our return path. Begin the countdown."

**{-/|!|\-}**

Upon exiting Rich's helicopter, Treecko sprinted toward the helicopter next to it. For a few minutes, none of the children could figure out why, until Adam pointed toward the approaching armada. Within fifteen seconds, all four were inside and taking positions.

"Do you know how to fly a helicopter?" Adam asked William.

William did not respond, though he grabbed the controls and began to rapidly push buttons. At this point in time, the helicopter had started to take off, and Stephanie was busy watching a radar screen filled with red dots. Adam had taken to finding some sort of weapon they could use against Rich, though the helicopter appeared to have been completely emptied of anything useful.

Fourteen seconds later, the helicopter was (somewhat awkwardly) making its way toward the cloud Rich had flown his own into.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Bomb is away. I repeat – bomb is away."

**{-/|!|\-}**

Fortunately for Adam, Stephanie, William, and Treecko, none of the four were looking toward the lab when the explosion occurred. Had they been, all four would have been blinded by the intense flash of light, and likely would have crashed the helicopter into the rapidly expanding firestorm. However, no amount of gaze evasion would spare them from the supersonic gust of wind that knocked both their and Rich's helicopters out of the sky and down into the cloud below.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"Target has been destroyed. I repeat – target has been destroyed."

Hundreds of miles away, cheers could be heard within the temporary Hoenn command center as every respectable member of the media began to report on the success of the mission.

**{-/|!|\-}**

Lisa watched the news play out on the only television the Mossdeep City Penitentiary had to offer when she felt another psychic mind come into contact with her own. _Hello? _she asked.

_Do you know Adam?_ the mind asked, nearly causing damage to Lisa's own from the sheer force of the psychic communication.

_Adam? Adam who?_ replied Lisa, though she soon felt her mind being probed without a response, hearing only the words of the unknown mind.

_So you _do _know Adam. And you appear to be locked inside a prison. Wait where you are – I will come for you shortly._

Lisa was about to inquire as to what the mind meant by this when she abruptly felt the force cut off.

\\\End of Chapter Eighteen/

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Nineteen

Memories Appendix A: A Brief Description of Geography


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Mortality

Author's Notes – Yes, that's right! After over a year, memories is back! You didn't think I was just going to end it with them all dying a fiery death at the hands of a helicopter, did you? No.

\\Chapter Nineteen: Mortality/

Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson sat on a small bench within the Olivine City Pokémon Centre. About a hundred people were gathered around a small television mounted on the wall, while uncountable others were waiting in a line that stretched throughout the building.

"We go now live to Olivine, where Elisha is reporting on the evacuation. Elisha."

"Thank you, Dave. As you can see behind me, thousands of people are gathered around and inside the Olivine City Pokémon Centre, most of which have undoubtedly been relocated from Goldenrod within the past two hours. Some of them likely left whole lives behind, while others may have become separated from their families in the evacuation.

Many people are searching for a glimmer of hope inside this disaster. Some began celebrating after the destruction of the supposed base where the leader of this terrorist attack, General Gregory Alvin Rich, was located, likely hoping the weapons could not be detonated without the base of operations. Additionally, we are receiving the first reports from the Johto Government that suggest all of Goldenrod city will be evacuated to Olivine within the next two hours…"

**{-/|!|\-}**

_I'm probably dead_ Adam thought. For most people and pokémon, this would be an illogical thing to think, as they had never experienced death before. Adam, however, was an exception, so he could make a fairly accurate comparison. Though he found it painful, after about thirty minutes, he managed to open his eyes and sit up, and saw that he was lying on a cloud. _Yep. Definitely dead. Kind of figured heaven would hurt less, though._ Groggily, he turned himself over, only to be greeted by a William in his face.

"Oh, good – you're up," he said. "Stephanie and I were worried."

Looking around, Adam saw Stephanie sitting about five yards away, tending to Treecko. A pile of metal that was once a helicopter sat five yards past that. Other than that, the only thing of note was they were in a perfectly rectangular room made out of clouds, with only one exit: a hallway (also made out of clouds). Much to his surprise, he found the setup familiar.

"How did we survive?" Adam asked.

"Stephanie pushed us out of the helicopter when we fell through the cloud. About two seconds later, we hit something solid. She got up first, with me getting up five minutes after that. You've been out about an hour, though."

"And Treecko?"

"Just bruised. It's really fortunate we landed on this cloud. Speaking of which, how did we land on a cloud?"

Adam looked around for a second. He felt as if he had been here before. Slowly, it dawned on him.

"Have either of you two seen any pokémon?"

"Stephanie thought she saw an Altaria fleeing from the crash, and I saw a Salamence walk past the room in that hallway, but I guess any others that were here got scared off by the blast. Why?"

"You're not going to believe this…"

**{-/|!|\-}**

General Rich regained consciousness shortly after Adam and the others. Two things were different from his crash than that of the children. First, he was one floor up. Second, he had anticipated the impact and knew about Sky Tower, and thus was able to lessen the force of the crash with his flying skills. As a result, the majority of the helicopter was intact, save the area the other helicopter hit, but it would never be able to fly again. Likewise, most of the equipment inside the helicopter was damaged. After checking to ensure the helicopter would not explode, Rich proceeded to perform an inventory of everything still intact. This search yielded two rice balls (which he tossed aside), two pistols, a portable video camera capable of video chat (which he packed just in case he did not make it to civilization) and portable internet connector, all of which he kept, and the Master Ball containing his Abra, which he also took with him.

Once the inventory was finished, he sat down, activated the camera and transmitter, and held the camera close to his face, sending a live video stream across oceans through the use of satellites. Within minutes, the President and Prime Minister were both talking to him, with the Prime Minister looking very smug.

"I commend your work, Mr. President and Prime Minister," General Rich said as he once again appeared on the screens of the respective leaders, both of whom were in the middle of meetings. "Using my own weapons against me – that was genius. Not to mention having discovered where the bomb was hidden in Johto. But I do have one question: what gave it away? Did you find radiation?"

"It was the remote countdown, Rich. Now tell us where you are hiding. Your plan has failed, and there's no point in running," the Prime Minister said. The President said something similar, but Rich was only able to receive one audio / video signal on his camera, so he could not hear him.

"Oh, I don't think my plan has failed, Prime Minister. Have you ever heard of the Canalave Inn Disaster?"

"The what?"

"Never mind – just my mind wandering. But as I was saying, I really don't think you've stopped my plan."

"How so?"

"You've destroyed my base of operations. True. As a result, I no longer have the ability to create more bombs, nor can I arm the ones I've already sent. For that matter, I can't send any signal to them at all…including the signal to _disarm_ the one with the countdown already started. You have two hours."

"We'll evacuate in one!"

"I hope you do, Prime Minister. I really do. But congratulations on your evacuation. One million people in just a few days is very impressive." With that, Rich deactivated the camera, tossed them aside, and wandered down a cloud-built hallway.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"You mean to tell me," Stephanie said, "that we're currently in Sky Pillar –"

"Tower," interjected Adam.

"– Tower, which is a dungeon made out of clouds where Rayquaza lives? And you came here before, and that this is what my sister's gym is based on. Oh, and it's made out of _solid clouds?"_

"Pretty much," said Adam.

Stephanie was about to say something else when William interrupted her.

"Adam, you said something about pokémon being here?"

"Yes, why?"

"I hear something coming down that hallway. How powerful are they?"

"Very. We should…find cover…or prepare to battle…or something."

Quickly, the three children and one pokémon ran behind the rubble of the helicopter. Stephanie had a pokéball-in-hand, ready to fight if necessary, while Treecko practiced some moves. Adam looked out over the rubble to see what they would be facing.

He did not see a pokémon. Instead, he saw General Rich, pointing a gun at him.

"Hello, Adam," Rich began. "We have much to do. Get your friends out here and I promise I won't shoot you."

**{-/|!|\-}**

Immediately after Rich left, the Prime Mister and the President both had their men research anything they could about the disaster. In the end, the President's men failed to find anything, while the only thing the Prime Minister's men had found was a small excerpt in the back of the long-outdated textbook _The Complete History of Canalave City._ It read as follows:

The Canalave Inn was known for two calamities that plagued it throughout its fifty-seven year history. The first was that, like all the other inns in the city, it was a regular place for visitors to be attacked by Darkrai, giving them endless nightmares. The second, and much less well-known, happened shortly after the inn opened in 1903. A terrible earthquake struck the town, causing many buildings in the city to collapse. When the Canalave Inn was about to fall, a trainer instructed his Machamp to hold up the building so the guests could escape. Twenty-five people made it out before the building collapsed, killing the Machamp. Yet the heroic act was in vain – every single person the Machamp rescued, including his trainer, vanished overnight. Since that night, no trace has ever been found.

A short while after reading the excerpt, the Prime Minister phoned the President, although neither could think of any significance it might have.

**{-/|!|\-}**

"I'll make this simple," Rich said as he released his Abra directly between him and William. He also took another gun out of his pocket. "I'm going to give this gun to William. He will use it to shoot me, but ensure he shoots the Abra as well. If he does not, I will kill Adam, Stephanie, and Treecko."

"But that doesn't make any sense," William said. "Why would you want me to shoot you? And why do I have to kill Abra?"

"I do not wish to tell you, nor is it important. Now, shoot," Rich said as he tossed a gun to William and pointed the other at Treecko.

"Why not shoot me instead?" William asked.

"Because you can't die! Now _shoot!"_ The sound of roaring thunder sprang forth from Rich's gun as a bullet hole appeared in the clouds between Adam's feet. "Missed. And with no spare ammo. At least I can still kill two of you." Another thunderclap rang out. The two children and grass type shut their eyes. Adam prepared for the end, for the third time in his life. Stephanie stood fearfully in place, as Treecko attempted to run toward the hallway.

However, no life-shattering bullet came. The three opened their eyes, only to see a dead Abra, William on his knees crying, and Rich with a hole through his stomach.

"You shot?" Adam asked as William nodded his head.

The three began to comfort William when Rich made his first noise in a long time. Adam rushed over to him.

"I wonder," Rich began, "if our rivalry will continue. But my bet's been placed."

"What bet?"

"You don't need to know. But I need you to finish my plan."

"Why would I do that?" Adam asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Because if you don't, millions will die, and I still win."

"Wha – "

"You have forty five minutes to make it to Johto."

"Where in Johto?"

"The tallest building west of Goldenrod."

"How are we supposed to do that?"

Rich reached into his pocket. Adam tensed, fearing he hid another gun. Instead, he removed a spherical object Adam could not see. "With this," Rich said, as he gave Adam the master ball. "It should – gah!" Rich suddenly entered into a coughing fit as blood seeped from his wound. When it subsided, he continued, "It should…be usable…running out of breath…now that the Abra…is…" Another coughing fit began. Unlike the last one, this one failed to end. A few seconds later, for the third time in his life, General Gregory Alvin Rich died.

\\\End of Chapter Nineteen/

Coming Soon

Memories, Chapter Twenty

I decided to leave the geography note out. It was not that important. Also, the problem with chapters 11 thru 15 not having their breaks shown is (hopefully) fixed!


End file.
